Age has no validation as a marker for retirement. Only patient outcomes are valid. Powerful factors in that assessment include experience, patient mix, and the size of any difference. If the difference is 0.25%, as it is for age and sex of the MD, litigation against any party forcngretirement is justified by disparate impact. The practice will be judged in court using strict scrutiny. One can only feel a difference of around 30% at the gut level, after correcting for all other factors.
When you take out a doctor, you save the payer $4 million a year. What is not being calculated is the value of restoring the health of patients, in preventing additional health care expenses, and in restoring people to economic productivity. Spend $2000 for a year of medical care by an old doctor, return to a $60,000 a year job. That loss from getting rid of one old doctor may be $120 million per year, not placing any value on suffering.
