Climate for physicians in Austin (insurance, home, school)

[pharaoh451]

Hi, I am a surgeon considering relocating to Austin from Florida. My questions are for any physicians practicing there who know the medical climate (malpractice/HMO/insurance reimbursement/cost of running a practice).

I have family in Texas and consider it my home state, despite having not lived there full time for many years. I have a very strong CV and 8+ years of practice experience post-residency, with what I think is an impeccable local reputation, but practice in a subspecialty where word-of-mouth plays a large part in maintaining a practice, and I would be "starting over" in terms of getting known in a new marketplace.

I'd like to know how the economic climate is treating physicians in Austin compared to other cities in Texas, and if you can comment, on how it compares to other states. Specifically, do you see continued growth in your patient catchment population?

How are your insurance reimbursements (e.g., typical insurance in-network contract as a multiple of Medicare reimbursement), and is it feasible to remain out-of-network and make a living there? (It is not generally practical here in south Florida)?

Do you consider Austin a "physician-friendly" environment in terms of relationships with other professionals, collegiality among physicians, etc?

Any perspective from people practicing there is helpful. Thanks in advance.

[neddy]

Good luck, I don't recall any regular posters here that have said they are doctors but maybe there is one.

[gdu]

Re: malpractice/HMO/insurance reimbursement/cost of running a practice - better than the national average.

It would be tough to remain out-of-network here unless you are one of a very few specialities, though there are some who pull it off in Austin.

[the minx]

It can be difficult to get licensed in Texas if you have anything unusual in your history from med school on. If you have not already started the process, I would do so now.

[pharaoh451]

Thanks for the advice so far. I already have a Texas license and have no issues I am concerned about with regard to credentialing. Main issue is the financial implications of "starting over" with a relocation, and looking for prospective environments that would be good long-term places professionally and personally.

[mezman]

Take this with a grain of salt as my wife is just a resident at this point. But we've heard the Austin physician market is pretty tight. This seems odd since Austin doesn't have a medical school and the residency programs it does have are fairly small. If you take into account the growing population you'd think there would be more opportunity but I guess a lot of the people moving there are docs .

Like I said this is just 2nd hand stuff we've heard from others. We're not looking to move to Austin when she's finished so we don't really know the situation first hand.

As far as med mal Texas is one of the best due to the tort reform that was passed in 2003 (though you probably already know this).

Insurance reimbursement is pretty good from what we gather. Depending on your specialty you could go out-of-network or cash only (this also depends on where you set your practice up).

At any rate good luck.