When you are ready to retire, turn to My Retired Doctor to handle patient records
If you’re a doctor nearing retirement age, no doubt you have seen some drastic changes in medicine over your career, particularly in recent years. Some of these changes may be affecting your desire or ability to retire at your previously planned time. If so, you’re not alone. Retirement is proving an elusive goal for many physicians.
Recovering from the Recession
According to a survey from Jackson & Coker, many physicians are still practicing at an age where they would prefer to be spending more time with their grandkids. The reason? The recession of 2008-2009. This economic disruption affected the retirement savings of many Americans, and 52 percent of doctors surveyed reported that they had to change their retirement plans as a result of their reduced net worth. In 72 percent of cases, the change to the retirement plan was to continue working longer to help rebuild their nest eggs. Some retired physicians have actually had to go back to work in order to compensate for the financial damage done by the recession.
Ongoing Doctor Shortage
The good news for doctors who need to continue working rather than retiring is that there are plenty of jobs in their field. There is currently an estimated shortage of 20,000 doctors in America. This shortage is only projected to get worse, with some experts forecasting that the US will be short 100,000 doctors within the next 10 years. Part time and locum tenens opportunities abound, enabling physicians to continue to earn money while working at a slower pace and with more flexible hours. About 30 percent of doctors who are postponing retirement are transitioning into these kinds of positions, according to the Jackson & Coker survey.
Impact of ObamaCare
Some experts believe that the Affordable Care Act is actually worsening the doctor shortage by creating changes that make it less profitable to practice medicine. A survey from the Physicians Foundation found that 60 percent of doctors would retire now rather than face the complications of ObamaCare if they could.
Make Sure Your Patients Are Protected
Regardless of when you may ultimately be able to retire, you will need to have a quality plan in place for managing your patient records. My Retired Doctor can help. We provide highly reliable and secure medical records storage services for physicians, as well as medical records retrieval services for patients. We can even convert records to a digital format to improve the security of the storage and transmission processes.