How common is it in FM for potential employers to Supplement resident salary?

[psychMDhopefully]

There are some residents here who have already signed contracts and get a 2k a month stipend, and 240k contract to start working for a hospital when they finish residency. How common is this, and what type of commitment do hospitals usually want for the stipend?

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[SLC]

I'm interested in this answer as well. I'm looking into signing an early contract to help with COL issues where I am currently residing for residency.

 

[deleted87716]

There are some residents here who have already signed contracts and get a 2k a month stipend, and 240k contract to start working for a hospital when they finish residency. How common is this, and what type of commitment do hospitals usually want for the stipend?

It's more common in rural areas with recruiting issues. That sort of stipend is basically just a signing bonus paid in monthly installments. It's an incentive for you to sign an early (pre-graduation) employment contract, and I suspect that in most cases, there's language in there requiring you to pay the stipend back if you end up not going.

 

[plica]

There are some residents here who have already signed contracts and get a 2k a month stipend, and 240k contract to start working for a hospital when they finish residency. How common is this, and what type of commitment do hospitals usually want for the stipend?

60K bonus paid monthly during residency. In return they want 3 yrs. During that 3 yrs you are essentially paying off your bonus obligation and if you fail to give them 3 yrs, you pay back what you did not fulfill (plus interest).

I will tell you that I had a number of offers after I had signed and they were willing to "buy out" the contract (meaning the new employer would have paid the 60K back for me).

 

[psychMDhopefully]

It's more common in rural areas with recruiting issues. That sort of stipend is basically just a signing bonus paid in monthly installments. It's an incentive for you to sign an early (pre-graduation) employment contract, and I suspect that in most cases, there's language in there requiring you to pay the stipend back if you end up not going.

Do they offer these stipends to first year residents?

 

[deleted87716]

Do they offer these stipends to first year residents?

I have no idea. That's probably something specific to the employer.

 

[BlackDynamite]

Do they offer these stipends to first year residents?

Third year med student here. Already getting stipend offers for FM gigs.


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[plica]

Third year med student here. Already getting stipend offers for FM gigs.


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I signed 6 months into my first year of residency.

 

[psychMDhopefully]

Third year med student here. Already getting stipend offers for FM gigs.


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how much? And are they trying to give you a stipend while in Med school?

 

[BlackDynamite]

how much? And are they trying to give you a stipend while in Med school?

$1,500/month


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[Mjolner]

$1,500/month


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Dang!!


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[deleted480308]

just consider why those places are going to offer that much money up front.....it's not because they have tons of doctors wanting to work there

 

[plica]

just consider why those places are going to offer that much money up front.....it's not because they have tons of doctors wanting to work there

Getting $2100/month while in residency.

It's true that they offer these incentives because it's harder to get docs to these rural locations. But if you can deal with living in the country, it's a great deal. You will make a lot more and cost of living is MUCH less (have a big house on a 5 acres for less than a 1/4 of the cost of a 1700sqft ranch in the bay area of CA). People are generally nicer and they really appreciate you being there. For a FM trained doc who wants to do it all it's the place to be!

 

[BlackDynamite]

This hospital is in a beautiful mountainous area with lake/river type scenery, population ~10,000, one hour from a town of 200,000. If I take this job I think I could survive.


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[deleted480308]

Getting $2100/month while in residency.

It's true that they offer these incentives because it's harder to get docs to these rural locations. But if you can deal with living in the country, it's a great deal. You will make a lot more and cost of living is MUCH less (have a big house on a 5 acres for less than a 1/4 of the cost of a 1700sqft ranch in the bay area of CA). People are generally nicer and they really appreciate you being there. For a FM trained doc who wants to do it all it's the place to be!

I get, I love rural life and am eyeing the EM groups offering the same incentives......but most docs don't want rural, which is why we will be paid more

 

[JustPlainBill]

And be sure to very carefully view the community on multiple fronts multiple times -- I lost a relationship with a mentor due to being recruited to a rural, critical access hospital under the guise of running an outpatient clinic with "call spread amongst 5 physicians" -- which turned out to be them wanting to progressively turn me into a hospitalist to the point where I was told straight to my face that they didn't want me if I didn't want to do more hospital work as "I can get a nurse to run an outpatient clinic" -- I left rather quickly after that --- and the $20K stipend was counted as income for tax purposes -- it got ugly ---

And lest anyone think I'm a wimp -- the "ICU" was actually a step down unit with no specialists of any stripe available to the hospital, a nursing staff that would write meds/admit patients to your service without telling you and an ER that didn't have a bougie in the crash cart, much less a cric kit -- and I was chastised for not accepting an 87 y/o WM with COPD and bilateral PNA proven on XRay who went into aFib in the ER but then converted back with bilateral LE edema and CHF in the history -- not no, but hell no -- and then had a young twit of a CNO tell me all I had to do was admit with IV abx and Cardizem and "he'll be fine" ---

Watch yourselves, ladies and gents -- you're worth at least $500K to $1M to any hospital straight out of residency -- negotiate accordingly because you can bet your behind they will throw you under the bus quickly if it comes down to it, no matter how much they smile and glad hand you ---

 

[Doctorsoon2011]

And be sure to very carefully view the community on multiple fronts multiple times -- I lost a relationship with a mentor due to being recruited to a rural, critical access hospital under the guise of running an outpatient clinic with "call spread amongst 5 physicians" -- which turned out to be them wanting to progressively turn me into a hospitalist to the point where I was told straight to my face that they didn't want me if I didn't want to do more hospital work as "I can get a nurse to run an outpatient clinic" -- I left rather quickly after that --- and the $20K stipend was counted as income for tax purposes -- it got ugly ---

And lest anyone think I'm a wimp -- the "ICU" was actually a step down unit with no specialists of any stripe available to the hospital, a nursing staff that would write meds/admit patients to your service without telling you and an ER that didn't have a bougie in the crash cart, much less a cric kit -- and I was chastised for not accepting an 87 y/o WM with COPD and bilateral PNA proven on XRay who went into aFib in the ER but then converted back with bilateral LE edema and CHF in the history -- not no, but hell no -- and then had a young twit of a CNO tell me all I had to do was admit with IV abx and Cardizem and "he'll be fine" ---

Watch yourselves, ladies and gents -- you're worth at least $500K to $1M to any hospital straight out of residency -- negotiate accordingly because you can bet your behind they will throw you under the bus quickly if it comes down to it, no matter how much they smile and glad hand you ---

I have thought about this sort of thing a lot in the past. The problem with us coming out of school is that there are very little resources to guide us on what to look for and how to navigate away from these kinds of situations. Sure I have read a book on contracts and will have a lawyer look over my contract but I dont have the experience you have... obviously I would like the experience without the experience.

Can you expand on your experiences. If, say today, you were going to take a potential employer through the stringent selection process where would you start and how would you do it front to back?

 

[Mad Jack]

just consider why those places are going to offer that much money up front.....it's not because they have tons of doctors wanting to work there

The trick is taking the stipend and then pulling one of these

I will tell you that I had a number of offers after I had signed and they were willing to "buy out" the contract (meaning the new employer would have paid the 60K back for me).

Add in some moonlighting and you can really knock out some debt during residency.

 

[deleted480308]

The trick is taking the stipend and then pulling one of these

Add in some moonlighting and you can really knock out some debt during residency.

haha

 

[organdonor]

Monthly stipend 2k during 2nd and third years of residency and if I signed earlier I could have gotten 1k a month during intern year. It gets added in to the rest of my sign on bonus which I get when I start and the whole amount is forgiven 1/60 per month for 5 years. If I leave before then pay it back with interest.

Had a couple similar offers from which to choose.

While my classmates moonlight I make more while working less

 

[psychMDhopefully]

This hospital is in a beautiful mountainous area with lake/river type scenery, population ~10,000, one hour from a town of 200,000. If I take this job I think I could survive.


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What your payback if you take the Stipend as a third year med student? I'm guessing at least 4 years.