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Medical Association Announces Results of Retirement Survey
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Business New Haven
11/16/1998
By: BNH
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The Fairfield County Medical Association recently released results from a survey of retired members. The FCMA wanted some empirical evidence on physicians' retirement issues. “What we were hearing is that [physicians] were getting burned out and that the practice of medicine has changed drastically,” says FCMA Executive Director Mark S. Thompson. “All we had was anecdotal evidence. We were curious if it was true.”
So the group contacted members that had retired a decade or so ago to contrast their responses to those of more recent retirees. One hundred thirty-six retired physicians responded to the survey.
Of respondents, 48 percent were primary-care physicians and the balance were specialists. The average retirement age of responding physicians was 69. However, the majority of members who practiced in Bridgeport, Greenwich and Stamford worked several years past that average retirement age, while Danbury- and Norwalk-based physicians tended to retire before age 69.
The primary reason for retirement was age, with 53 percent citing it. The second were demands made by insurance companies, followed by a decline in personal health, professional “burn-out” and a fully funded retirement plan rounded out the list. Physicians who had participated in group practices tended to retire “earlier” (at 64 to 67 years of age).
Forty-three percent of responding physicians implemented what the association calls “semi-retirement strategies” prior to leaving the clinical practice of medicine, including reducing office hours, limiting the number of new patients and, in the case of surgeons, not taking emergency calls.
The survey also asked about post-retirement activities and 55 respondents (41 percent) remain active in medicine by volunteering or performing reimbursed medical services. Twenty-four doctors (18 percent) perform pro bono work; these same physicians say they miss the clinical practice of medicine and wish they had not retired so soon. Fifty respondents (37 percent) performed other, non-medical, pro bono work. Of these, fewer than half said they missed practicing medicine.
The issue of the changing demands on physicians was evident in the survey results. Of physicians who retired prior to 1993, the number who cited administrative demands by insurance companies was negligible. While recognizing that the results are from a small sample, the FCMA claims a “significant” increase in the number of doctors who indicated that the primary reason for retiring was administrative hassles with insurance companies.
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