Interventional Spine & Pain Physician | fluoroscopic & ultrasound guided procedures | @MayoClinicPMR & @MayoPainMed alumnus | opinions mine
Joined October 2010
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Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Doctors haven't gotten a raise from Medicare since 1992. They've gotten a 55% pay cut. 📉
In 1992 Medicare paid $31.00 per unit of physician work. In 2026 it pays $33.40. If it had just kept up with inflation, it would be about $74.
Same work. Less than half the buying power.
Meanwhile your mortgage, your student loans, and your kids' tuition kept up with inflation just fine.
You can't control what Medicare pays you. You can control what you do with what's left.
What's your specialty? 👇
Hit follow to learn the personal finance topics you wish you learned in med school.
Sources: Medicare Physician Fee Schedule conversion factor history (AMA/CMS); 2026 = non-APM conversion factor. Inflation adjustment uses BLS CPI-U (1992 annual average → Aug 2026).
#physicianfinance #moneymeetsmedicine #medicare #doctorpay #physicianburnout
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Here is what every senior on Medicare seeing an orthopedic surgeon with knee arthritis, is about to experience if Dr Oz has his way. Pass it on.
@DutchRojas @HeathVeuleman @anish_koka @DrDiGiorgio @AAPSonline
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Here are some scenarios where CMS proposes to penalize physicians : cc @DrOzCMS
A patient arrives with eye irritation, and the doctor performs a same-day foreign body removal from the cornea.
A patient presents with acute knee pain, and the doctor performs an intra-articular joint injection
A patient presents for a routine skin check, and the physician performs a shave biopsy of an unexpected lesion
An office visit results in a same-day rigid cystoscopy to check for bladder issue
A patient presents with severe foot pain, and the podiatrist performs a same-day avulsion of a nail plate
A patient arrives with acute abdominal pain, is evaluated, and the surgeon performs a same-day emergency incision and drainage of a deep abscess
You don’t need to be affected by this particular proposed rule to say this is a stupid move by CMS .. and it’s also blindingly obvious where this is headed.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Before you sign your next comp plan (or renew your current one), check these 8 things. Most physicians never do — and it costs them.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Brand new attendings -
If you graduated June 30 and had access to a Guardian GSI plan at your program, you must apply by Monday September 28th.
After that, you will no longer be eligible.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Aug 6, 2026
Reminder:
‘Doctors are the problem in healthcare’
lololololol
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
I honestly don’t get how doctors could support Medicare for all.
Since 1992, Medicare has cut physician payment every year. We now make half of what we would if payments just kept up with inflation.
Medicare also created a massive disparity in payment between specialists and primary care.
Now they’re attempting to fix that. And I applaud the effort. Primary care deserves more money.
Yet this is hardly a win. Physicians are still facing yet another pay cut.
Specialty care is taking a huge hit. It’s going to be impossible for independent physicians to care for Medicare beneficiaries without running in the red. If they weren’t already.
These are all symptoms of the bigger disease: central planning.
Medicare is designed so physicians would get paid less every year. Medicare is designed so CMS can set relative physician payment.
Medicare decides if primary care makes more than specialists or if hospital based services get paid more than independent doctors. It banned doctors from owning hospitals. I implemented mountains of paperwork and conditions of participation.
It has the power to extinguish independent physician practice.
I love that Dr Oz is trying to correct the pay disparity with primary care. But let’s remember, CMS created that disparity to begin with.
Medicare for all would just give CMS even more power to control physicians.
my account is secure and under my control again. apologies to anyone that received a strange message from this account while it was compromised.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Pain on the outside of your hip is one of the most common problems I see in my practice.
Walkers get it. Runners get it. People who've never been to a gym get it.
For decades, we called it bursitis and injected it. We were treating the wrong thing.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
James Van Der Beek passed away today.
I’m a healthcare guy and I post about healthcare.
Now I want to talk about James.
He was special, he was 48 years old, a Father of six, a Husband. He was man who spent his final chapter teaching the ultimate guide to real life.
James was part of my growing up. Dawson’s Creek. Varsity Blues. The 90s. He was just there, woven into the background.
What he did over the last few years was bigger than any of that. He recorded a video on his last birthday.
Cancer had taken everything he used to define himself. He couldn’t be the husband who helped around the house.
He couldn’t pick up his kids and carry them to bed. He couldn’t work.
He was too weak to prune the trees on his own property. And he sat with that.
He asked himself the question most of us spend a lifetime avoiding: If I am none of the things I do, who am I?
His answer was simple.
Devastating. Beautiful.
“I am worthy of God’s love simply because I exist. And if I’m worthy of God’s love, shouldn’t I also be worthy of my own?”
That’s it.
That’s the whole thing.
We spend our careers building identities around what we produce, what we control, and what we can point to.
And then life has a way of stripping it all down to the studs. James Van Der Beek faced that moment with the courage.
He said cancer was the best thing that ever happened to him because it taught him how to live.
He left behind his wife, Kimberly, six children, and a message that every father, husband, and man chasing the next thing needs to sit with.
Watch this video.
Then call someone you love.
Thank you for your contribution.
Rest easy…
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
This is such an important point.
People don’t realize that the reason for high administrative costs in healthcare isn’t private insurance.
It’s Medicare.
That’s right. The endless bureaucratic needling all adds up. Just the Medicare approved electronic medical records costs this practice $10k a month. Then add in all the staff needed for billing, coding, quality metrics, and other compliance.
For a hospital, multiply those tasks by 1000.
None of that shows up on balance sheets for CMS’s admin costs. It’s just offloaded onto private doctors and hospitals and all the Medicare for all advocates can go on claiming that Medicare has low admin costs.
I don’t see where significant “provider-side savings” would come from. In small practices, the biggest cost driver isn’t insurers—it’s the EMR.
Mine runs about $10,000 a month. That inflation began with the HITECH Act, HIPAA and accelerated as CMS kept expanding documentation and reporting requirements through Meaningful Use, then MACRA and MIPS.
Nearly all of that administrative load comes from federal mandates, not private insurance. So cutting “administrative cost” might help hospitals with big compliance departments, but it doesn’t meaningfully reduce the burden on small independent practices that carry the full weight of CMS reporting rules.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
THIS is why they never get on my recommended lists for insurance, even if a given product of theirs is good.
Not because the agents are “bad.”
They are not.
This company’s culture is SO dangerous for clients and agents alike.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Huge momentum on here today. Thanks for likes, follows, and reposts.
#patientsfirst
#scrubsnotsuits
Of course the suits we are talking about are bureaucrats that never studied science or medicine yet tell some of the smartest, sincere, empathetic, caring, and generous people in the world how to do their job.
Let’s keep it going. Like, share, follow, tag, repost. Let’s keep the #doctorcommunity growing
@realdocspeaks @AriReddy @JahangirAsgha10 @mass_marion @DutchRojas @txsportsdoc @iSpineDoc @BrentAWilliams2 @rustyrockets @LighthouseDPC
Tag your top ten and keep it going.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Been a surgeon for 21yrs, have built a hospital and few ASCs. I think I know a little about healthcare, but the @DRsLoungePod is like getting graduate degree in healthcare every week. If @POTUS @DrOz really want a real solution to replacing Obamacare with better more affordable care. Give them a listen. 🙌
Welcome to our live show! xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1RDxlAmWN…
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Sadly, I’ve seen a lot of this firsthand amongst physicians.
Docs -
Please please stop believing insurance products are investments.
They are not.
We’ve always tried to take the hardest chapters of our life — infertility, loss, setbacks — and use them for good. Today is one of those moments.
We are sounding the alarm on a hidden insurance scam involving policies being sold by Pacific Life and other insurance carriers. These are being pitched as “smart retirement planning” or a way to “set up your children’s future,” but too many families are being misled and left with devastating financial loss.
And it’s not just public figures — it’s everyday hardworking Americans who trusted the system and are now left with little to no way to recover what was taken.
We’re sharing our experience so others don’t have to go through this without warning. We were mislead. If you’ve been approached with a “no-risk” retirement plan tied to an index universal life product (IUL)…. RUN!
Your future matters. Your family’s security matters. You deserve transparency.
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Proposed LCD for peripheral nerve blocks and pain procedures changes will be disastrous for IPM.
ASIPP has created a petition for you, your staff, and patients to sign. We will send to all Medicare Directors.
Deadline to sign is Nov. 3!
SIGN HERE: ow.ly/ns7K50XiH2k
Restore Medicare Access to Procedures —End Discrimination and Geographic Inequality - Sign the Petition! c.org/FkwbYTNfRM via @Change
Jason Erickson, DO, MSPT retweeted
Things your broker who’s being paid by the insurance company also won’t tell you: if you develop a pre-existing condition while on Medicare advantage — you will be stuck on their narrow network. You can’t go back to traditional Medicare + Medigap supplemental.
If you thought “You can keep your doctor” applied to the ACA, you are so 2010.
Now it’s the Medicare Advantage lie. Before you sign up for Medicare Advantage in the next month , call your doctor and anyone you get care from and ask them to confirm they are in your Medicare Advantage plan.
And remember. Original Medicare plans , plus Medigap, plus Part D may cost you a little more every month , but when you call your doctor to ask if they take original Medicare , the chances are really good they will be
Don’t get skunked by zero premiums. Medicare Advantage has no Pre Authorization. Many Medicare Advantage plan specialize in it !