Word: sosenko
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
However, physicians themselves deserve at least part of the blame. "Doctors," says Dr. John Walsh, 46, one of Sosenko's partners, "haven't sold themselves as a self-policing group." The vast majority of conscientious physicians have been forced to subsidize the higher insurance costs of a few incompetents. Consider this: between September 1990 and March 2003, just 5% of the doctors who have made medical malpractice payments accounted for a third of all the money paid out, according to the Federal Government's National Practitioner Data Bank...
...Sosenko's crash course in law and politics is taking an emotional toll on him and his family. An avid windsurfer and science-fiction buff whose favorite books are The Hobbitt and The Lord of the Rings, Sosenko hasn't been able to enjoy himself much for the past several months. He hardly has the time or energy to play video games with his son Nick, 10. For the first time in recent memory, he has missed some of his 12-year-old daughter Teresa's afterschool volleyball games, though he still manages to take the kids to their classes...
With Medicare, Medicaid and HMO reimbursements falling and malpractice premiums steadily rising, Sosenko's income has dropped 40% over the past five years, to about $200,000 last year. That might sound like a lot, until you consider the 13 years he studied after high school, the debts he built up, the nights and weekends he works. As his colleague Cohan says, with only a little exaggeration, "Our income is completely controlled by the government, but we have no control on our expenses." Both men are bracing for a potentially bigger pay cut. Sosenko has put off indefinitely any major...
Early retirement is an equally unattractive prospect for Sosenko, a driven perfectionist who avidly reads medical journals to stay current with his specialty and holds his children to his exacting standards. If necessary, Sosenko says, he would "probably work without insurance," a dangerous gamble for any doctor these days but one that some physicians, particularly in Florida, are now taking. Another option he's exploring is work as a cardiopulmonary trainer and tester for fire fighters and others who must have good respiratory fitness for their job. As for the career plans of his children, Sosenko probably won't encourage...
That has been painfully clear to Sosenko in recent weeks. After the collapse of their talks with Provena Hospital, the doctors of MPC, who had pledged to stick it out together, suddenly fractured. The three who haven't been named in either of the lawsuits pending against the practice--Drs. Walsh, Visvanatha Giri and Phillip Leung--created a separate partnership and secured malpractice insurance. Sosenko is planning to take the next couple of weeks off now that his policy has run out and then try to find a new medical group to join. Even so, he says, there...