What I’m doing: Dr. Tanyech Walford
Family practice physician Tanyech Walford has seen her business shrink and insurance reimbursements cut back. For her, the financial crisis means closing her office and leaving L.A. Walford tells her story for our series "What I'm doing."
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Kai Ryssdal:
One of the questions we’re asking throughout the Wall Street meltdown is: What are you doing? Yes, you. And other people who are deciding whether to change the way they save and invest. In this installment in the series, we check a financial pulse in Southern California.
Tanyech Walford:
I’m Dr. Tanyech Walford, I’m a family medicine physician in Los Angeles, California. It’s looking like I’ll have to end up closing my practice that I’ve dedicated the last 5 1/2 years to build.
I’ve watched revenues diminish because people can’t, and are not, paying their bills. Probably last year this time I had to refer, maybe, 2 percent of my patients to a collection agency to collect outstanding balances. Probably about 30 percent of my patients right now are referred to a collection agency. And I don’t like to put that kind of burden on them, but the flip side of that coin is that I can’t pay my bills and I’m working for free.
I’m going to pack up and abandon ship. I’ve decided to move back to the East Coast to an economy that is a little bit more user friendly, so to speak. And I’m also going to hide behind the shield of a larger practice, probably hospital-based practice, that can fight with these insurance companies and the government to get proper reimbursement so I can survive. Not only to survive but to flourish.
Kai Ryssdal:Dr.Tanyech Walford practices family medicine in Los Angeles.