As a Surgical resident I quickly surmised that the administrators were running medicine, and deciding the faith of physicians. Ultimately, medicine has become a trifecta of revenue cycle management/billing and coding, financial management/accounting and last but not least medicine.
During my second year of Surgical Residency I devised a plan to create compentency in the trifecta of the business of money, medicine had become. Firstly, complete a MBA in healthcare management. On the road to the MBA I realized I needed knowledge of government taxation. Additionally, I thought the road to healthcare equity was healthcare law. Fortunately for me with prayers the answer turned out to be the most utilitarian degree was Accounting with specialization in Government taxation. The answer to equity in healthcare was appropriations, encumbrances and expenditures, that is, the budget and budget justification.
Ultimately, I wholeheated agree with the great Suzy Orman, people first, then money, then things. We have to return expeditiously to the Hipprocratic way of practicing medicine, thus, people first at all times, that is, to inherently be in the business of people, and NOT in the business of money.