Cover story
Doctor Feelbad
Time was when doctors were at the pinnacle of our society -- with the Mercedeses and country places such status merited. Now, buried under paperwork, their income chiseled by HMOs, their power and independence eroded, they feel like any other employee. It's enough to make you sick.

BY STEVE FISHMAN

"Vacations? Are you kidding?" Mark Fox is a physician. he's got a handlebar mustache, a sharp widow's peak, a bright tie, and his own private practice in Scarsdale. He's 53, in the prime of his career, and just now, seated behind the desk with a life-size plastic nose on it -- he's an ear-and-nose specialist -- he is recalling how he used to take vacations. "Every winter and every summer," he says. Photos of high-mountain camping near Mount Rainier hang on his office walls. First the summer vacations disappeared. "Haven't had one in five years." This year he skipped the winter vacation. Fox's own doctor has urged him to take some time off. He doesn't disagree. "I have increased stress, high blood pressure," he says. He's so wound up by the time he gets home from the office that his wife won't talk to him for an hour afterward. He's watched a couple of physician friends undergo open-heart surgery. Still, he's reluctant. His income dropped 25 percent in one recent year. And if he's not working, he's not only losing income. "I'm still paying for the overhead," he says, and it's doubled in recent years. So what does he do? "I tighten my belt and get a headache," he says. Cont