Doctors have taken a pay hit, according to a new report from the Center for Studying Health System Change.
The center found that doctors’ net income fell about 7% from 1995 to 2003, after adjusting for inflation. During the same time, pay for other professionals grew by about 7%, according to the center.
Orange County is one of 12 communities studied by the center, a nonprofit financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Income declines varied among doctors. Primary care doctors fared the worst, with a 10% drop, according to the center. Surgeons’ real income fell 8%.
Medical specialists fared the best with no change in real income, according to the center.
The cause: Flat or declining reimbursement from government programs and insurers, said Ha Tu, a center researcher and study co-author.
The lower real income trend “likely is an important driver of growing physician unwillingness to provide such pro bono work as charity care and serving on hospital committees,” said center director Paul Ginsburg.
The income declines likely were linked to what the center said was a movement of doctors away from primary care and into medical specialties that paid more and kept better pace with inflation.
The center found that the medical specialist portion of the country’s doctor population grew from 32% to 38% during the study period.
The proportion of primary care doctors and surgical specialists fell about 3%.
Doctors still are well paid. The center noted that average net income was about $203,000, and at least half of all physicians earned more than $170,000 as of 2003.
Surgical specialists were the highest earning doctors, bringing in an average of $272,000 in 2003, 29% more than medical specialists and 86% higher than primary care physicians.
Allergan: Wider Lumigan Usage
Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. got regulatory approval for expanded use of one of its eye drugs.
Regulators cleared Lumigan, a prescription eye drop, as a treatment for a condition that’s associated with glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
The condition, elevated intraocular pressure, eventually causes blindness and is associated with open-angle glaucoma, which affects some 3 million Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration originally cleared Lumigan in 2001 as a pressure-lowering drug for patients who failed to respond to other glaucoma treatments. The FDA’s latest approval allows Lumigan to be used on patients as a first-time treatment.
Allergan Chief Executive David Pyott once referred to Lumigan as having “the characteristics of a product with great potential.”
The Lumigan news wrapped up an eventful June for Allergan.
Earlier, the company got props from stock guru Jim Cramer. He tabbed Allergan as a stock to watch based on the company’s lineup of cosmetic medical products, including flagship wrinkle-reducer Botox and Juv & #269;derm, a newly approved drug to smooth wrinkles and folds on the lower part of the face.
Allergan got Juv & #269;derm in its $3.2 billion buy of Inamed Corp. earlier this year.
Cortex Drug Fails Study
Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine drug developer, took a blow late last month.
The company’s shares fell about 16% after it said its main product fell short of expectations. Cortex, a development stage company, counted a market value of about $85 million last week.
The company said its lead drug for wakefulness, CX717, didn’t differ from a placebo in a study. That was a different result than previous tests.
In the latest test, CX717 was found not to boost cognitive performance during a study covering simulated night shift work spanning four nights with restricted daytime sleep.
A sleep-deprivation study done last year in Britain showed CX717 was effective in keeping people alert after 27 hours with no sleep.
Cortex also has looked at CX717 for uses in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
The company has had other issues with CX717.
In April, the FDA stopped studies over concerns raised from animal test data. Cortex gave regulators a new research plan and said it expects the FDA to remove the hold on clinical trials.
Bits and Pieces:
Visiogen Inc., Irvine, said it received European regulatory approval for Synchrony, its intraocular replacement lens that’s designed for both cataract and refractive eye surgeries. Visiogen said Synchrony is in a domestic clinical study being conducted by the FDA Tallie Baram, a University of California, Irvine neurologist and epilepsy researcher, got the Senator Jacob Javits award in the neurosciences, a prestigious prize for brain-disorder research. Separately, Sheryl Tsai, a UC Irvine assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, received $240,000 from the Pew Charitable Trusts to pursue drug discovery work Beckman Coulter Inc. of Fullerton and B. Braun Medical Inc., which has operations in Irvine, were among several suppliers recognized with a performance award from Premier Purchasing Partners LP, a unit of San Diego-based hospital buying group Premier Inc.
