Help with Ophthalmology Associate position

[asbedew]

I'm hoping some of you can tell me if this is normal or if I should find a different practice to work for.

I'm a new comprehensive ophtho working as an associate for a guy who owns a huge practice with lots of in-house optoms and a large outside referral base. My compensation package is pretty decent: $200K/yr + 30% of collections over 3x salary + education expenses, malpractice, etc. When I started, he told me that he thought I would be doing about 30% of the surgical cases at the practice, but he has been keeping a very close eye on my collections and if it looks like I'm going to end up earning a large bonus, he has the schedulers and counselors send me fewer patients to limit my bonus.This has happened about half way through each year that I've been working for him. He'll send me a spreadsheet showing my collections so far for the year. I'll extrapolate to the end of the year and celebrate that I'm going to be able to pay off a significant portion of my student loans with my bonus. Then I immediately notice that my clinic and surgical schedule are tanking and I end up getting a very small bonus by the end of the year. I've asked him about this and he says he is going to send me enough patients so that I only get a small bonus. Is this normal behavior?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[odieoh]

I'm hoping some of you can tell me if this is normal or if I should find a different practice to work for.

I'm a new comprehensive ophtho working as an associate for a guy who owns a huge practice with lots of in-house optoms and a large outside referral base. My compensation package is pretty decent: $200K/yr + 30% of collections over 3x salary + education expenses, malpractice, etc. When I started, he told me that he thought I would be doing about 30% of the surgical cases at the practice, but he has been keeping a very close eye on my collections and if it looks like I'm going to end up earning a large bonus, he has the schedulers and counselors send me fewer patients to limit my bonus.This has happened about half way through each year that I've been working for him. He'll send me a spreadsheet showing my collections so far for the year. I'll extrapolate to the end of the year and celebrate that I'm going to be able to pay off a significant portion of my student loans with my bonus. Then I immediately notice that my clinic and surgical schedule are tanking and I end up getting a very small bonus by the end of the year. I've asked him about this and he says he is going to send me enough patients so that I only get a small bonus. Is this normal behavior?

Seems odd. Unless he is taking a hit on his own volume in order to fill your schedule, that would make no sense. Theoretically, he should want you to earn a huge bonus, because it should be a win-win situation- a large bonus means you produced large volume, which should be good for him. So I don't know, that is a little weird.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

What is his volune? His volume may be suffering so he may fill up his schedule more. Every dollar you collect, he makes 70 cents. So if his schedule is maxed out, he has incentive to see you more productive.