I get that a heart attack hospitalization is expensive, $55k on average. The physician is not pocketing all of that $55k. They aren't the ones charging that, th

I get that a heart attack hospitalization is expensive, $55k on average. The physician is not pocketing all of that $55k. They aren't the ones charging that, that is the hospital. The physician will get ~$1k of that (look below for the calculation). Please try to be charitable in your evaluation of my ability to reason here. I'm not trying to change the topic from office visit to heart attack. I provided the RVU calculation for the outpatient visits. That is how much the physicians are getting paid. You said that physicians are making a couple hundred bucks of each outpatient visit, which I don't believe is accurate, and I provided the calculation of why I don't think that is accurate. The total cost of the visit can be $250, but the physician is not getting anywhere near that. I don't think it's accurate to say that they will be able clear $1000/hr. There is additional time needed to document each patient (often equal to the amount of time seeing the patient). I think seeing 3 visits in that time is plausible, but the physician is not getting that whole $250 (which is the point I'm trying to make). The clinic revenue may be $750 for that hour, but that needs to cover all of the overhead, and the physician will get whatever is left. Make sure you are looking for sources that compare how much the private insurance pays physicians compared to medicare in particular vs how much they pay hospitals compared to medicare. The numbers will be different. The $53,384 is what the hospital charges for the heart attack. The physician only gets the wRVUs for the services they provide in the hospital (if they're employed), so the 12.56 wRVU for the cardiac revascularization + the admission history and physical (2.61 wRVU CPT 99222) however many days of progress notes (2.00 wRV 1x each day - CPT 99233) in the hospital and the discharge summary (1.28 wRVU - CPT 99238) they write for the patient. So if a patient got revascularized and were in the hospital for 4 days before being discharged that's 12.56 + 2.61 (admission day) + 2 * 2.00 (2 inpatient days) + 1.28 (discharge day) = 20.45 wRVUs for the admission = $737 for the physician for that hospitalization. I'm trying to make the distinction here between how much the hospital gets paid vs. the physician who provided the care. It's not accurate to say the physician is making $53,384 for the heart attack hospitalization, that is what the hospital is charging. The physician may make ~$1000 for an admission like that. If the physician is self-employed or in a group, they will charge for the facility RVUs and malpractice RVUs as well, because they need to cover the overhead of having a clinic to see the patient after the hospitalization. If your bill breaks down the overhead for the clinic separate from the physician charge, then I'll agree that the physician made the $250 straight cash, but I don't think that is in any way the average amount any kind of doctor will make off an outpatient visit. Look at what you're suggesting, that a physician makes $1000/hr * 2080 workable hours in a year (not likely a physician only works 40hrs a week..) = $2+ million a year.