How much salary does a doctor make

[Scarpozzi]

If I had a guess, at least in CA, the top end of that scale makes more while the bottom end makes less.

A lot of Family Doctors still round on patients before going to their practice. They don't have to be a hospitalist specialty either. If they work in the right office, they can schedule 15-30 patients a day....4 days a week and still make bank.

What you need to understand is that doctors ask a bunch of questions in their consults...a few extra questions, when initiated by the doc can allow them to charge you more as a patient and ultimately, bill insurance more. You can go in and be billed a level 1-4 and the office visit can pay out significantly more as long as the doctor documents properly.

It also helps when the physician knows you're self pay and tries to give you a break, but if you're a drug seeker or there for the wrong reasons, they will sometimes run you through the works just to make it worth their while to put up with you. (I know some that do this)

 

[SearchMaster]

I had a tennis buddy many years ago (early 90s) who was a dermatologist. Other than having to look at some unpleasant rashes and such, he said it was a pretty good gig. There are very rarely "dermatology emergencies" so it was basically a 9-5 job. He did have to be on call one week a month but was rarely called and when he was, it was almost always a phone call and nothing he had to run to the office or hospital for. He was a relatively young guy with his own practice (along with 3 other derms) so the apprenticeship/fellowship requirements must have been a lot less.

I wonder if that area of medicine has gone into the shitter like so many others have over the last couple of decades...

 

[Scarpozzi]

I had a tennis buddy many years ago (early 90s) who was a dermatologist. Other than having to look at some unpleasant rashes and such, he said it was a pretty good gig. There are very rarely "dermatology emergencies" so it was basically a 9-5 job. He did have to be on call one week a month but was rarely called and when he was, it was almost always a phone call and nothing he had to run to the office or hospital for. He was a relatively young guy with his own practice (along with 3 other derms) so the apprenticeship/fellowship requirements must have been a lot less.

I wonder if that area of medicine has gone into the shitter like so many others have over the last couple of decades...

Skin disorders are pretty basic...things are either fungal, viral, or bacterial.....and all have common treatments. Of course, you can get burn patients, skin cancers, etc too...

 

[Anubis]

the numbers are pretty accurate but they vary a FUCK TON depending on where you are, my bro in law clears close to a million a year as an orthopedic surgeon in CA
if he worked the same job/same hours in NY he would make 1/2 of that

 

[Anubis]

Very true. They never should have accepted an insurance based reimbursement model. Lawyers dont accept it, accountants dont accept it, you'd always hesitate to take your car to the place your insurance co wants it to go, DRs really f'ed themselves over there.

Though the govt bends DRs over a barrell too by prohibiting collective bargaining, other healthcare workers are doing OK because of their unions, DRs get the shaft.

Docs don't really have much of a choice, the insurance COs basically told them it was this way or nothing.

 

[Sulaco]

My dad's an MD/JD, who's been practicing medicine for the last 25+ years or so.

Currently a Professor of Neurology, Board Certified, who subspecializes in Neuro Ophthalmology and Neuro Otology.

We've lived and he's practiced all over the country, literally from UCSF to UVA, from the University of Michigan to rural Florida, and several places in between. He's done the private practices, but his true love and his true calling is teaching. So that's what he plans to retire doing.

But in that time, I've seen the simply unimaginable workload he's taken on for the relatively little compensation. Even now, he's a Professor during the week, and still covers call at the hospital. 12 hours days, all told, are quite common. He's often work 16+ hours during residency, before laws were in place for residents and they worked literally to exhaustion.

But watching him and docs like him, there is a passion for the material, the science, and the people that you're helping that simply drives you. Sure, there are docs who are in it to make money, but if you chose medicine for that reason, the cost-to-reward, both financial and workload-wise, is a poor ratio.

He makes good money now, but frankly, he's earned it, and still works so hard. Coupled with some of the most rigorous education and training in the world, the immense workload, and the enormous responsibility on your shoulders, with life and death and people's eyesight resting in your hands, I'm not sure I could or would ever be able to handle it. Let alone being smart enough. Had it been about money, he could have simply stuck to law and made substantially more early on, without the hours, pressure, and relatively meager pay going from fellowship to fellowship.

The good doctors, who are passionate about their speciality and the people they are helping, don't get into it for the money. And if they did, they'd have little time to enjoy it.

 

[boomerang]

when doctors get sick, do they go to a another doctor or just check it out themselves?

Can you check your own prostate? There's your answer.