Wed. May 8th, 2024

This may seem a little tangential but it is reality:

In April 2020, a group of 500 NYU residents petitioned NYU Langone leadership for hazard pay, to compensate for the increased risk of infection that they faced on a daily basis during the first COVID-19 surge in New York City. Carmody, the former vice chair of academic affairs for the emergency medicine department at NYU, said in the lawsuit that her support of this movement and her opposition to the hospital leadership’s alleged hostile responses made her a target for retaliation.

According to the complaint, Carmody ignored her supervisors’ demands to seek out and expose the names of the residents who signed the letter. She claimed that Robert Grossman, MD, the dean and CEO of NYU Langone Health, told her that he was not only keeping track of this group, but he was also compiling a list of their names to place them on a “no-hire” list to hinder their job prospects after completing residency.

Imagine that? Kristin Carmody, MD was fired for supposing residents who work as hard as anyone during the pandemic. And how about that that “no hire” list, huh? Real nice touch.

But that couldn’t happen to you in primary care, right? Wrong. I was fired for not signing a form that would allow a 3rd party to “optimize” my Medicare billing on their own. In that paper was a sentence that I would agree to waive all rights against that 3rd party even if they do anything illegal. In other words, if the government came calling due to fraudulent claims then I am the one responsible. I refused. My firing lasted a month until the administration blinked and backed down. But the writing was on the wall. I quit my job a few months later and the rest is my DPC story.

So, what is the lesson here?

Be your own boss or you are at the whim of administrators, most of which don’t care about you.

25600cookie-checkWhat You are Missing By Doing DPC: Getting Fired for Sticking Up for Residents
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

2 thoughts on “What You are Missing By Doing DPC: Getting Fired for Sticking Up for Residents”
  1. Is that why you’re not my doctor anymore!? I completely respect your decision and I really miss you as well.

    1. Hi. No, I just retired from clinical medicine after 30 years. That story of being fired happened in Maine in 2012. That is why I left to come to Va and open Forest DPC. All is well with me after retirement. Running this website and also doing some consulting to helps other spread the DPC movement. I hope you are well.

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