7-Figure Anesthesia Salaries?

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The busiest place I interviewed was just south of a million and they had a incredibly ****ty payer mix.

There aren't many of these jobs so I would say that a grad cannot expect it, but they do exist.

I do all my own cases and so I make half or less what I would have made there, but I live where I want to and I am in a job that I can work until they pry me out of the chair. If I had worked there I would have been gone after 5-8 years with a funded retirement looking for the job I now have.

I may end up working more total hours in my life when all is said and done, but I will enjoy those hours immensely more and the tradeoff is worth it for me.

Never underestimate the power of having people work for you. An efficiently run 8:1 practice will get you this kind of money even with a bad payer mix. With a good payer mix...

- pod

Mind pming me where this fantastic job is.

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To elaborate, how much money you make IN THIS BIZ depends primarily on 4 things:

1) PAYER MIX: anesthesiologists are reimbursed for their services by many entities (assuming you are in a fee for service group where you eat what you kill and not an employee of a hospital or AMC).

Those entities that pay you for the cases your group performs varies

DRASTICALLY

in how much they pay you.....Aetna insurance company may pay you $2000.00 for a multi level spine case with instrumentation and the same case covered by Medicare may pay $600.00, for example.

Government (medicare/medicaid/Tricare) pay dismal.
Private insurance companies typically pay much better than government programs. How much better depends on where you live.
Some cases pay you in cash. Yep...
COLD HARD BENJAMINS.
Cash cases vary dramatically as well. Plastics cases don't pay much.
My gig does alotta bariatric surgery, the bulk of which are private pay (the patient pays for it prior to the procedure). We do well on the bariatric cases.
Attorney cases (lawsuit...attorney pays for case.....lumbar disc or anterior cervical fusion....car wreck, etc) are lucrative.

2) THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

Spine surgery and total joints are lucrative for us in the commercial insurance/cash pay world. ENT/general surg cases/plastics are less so, for example.

3) VOLUME

Easy to understand...the more cases you do the more money you make.

4) WHERE YOU LIVE

Harder to understand but it is what it is. Insurance companies pay more in certain areas of the country than others.



I have the anesthesia contract at a physician owned boutique hospital where we accept private insurance only. No medicare/medicaid.
The bulk of our practice is spines, orthopedics, and bariatrics.

In summary,

PAYER MIX

THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

VOLUME

WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE U.S.

are the primary determinants of a fee for service anesthesiologist in this country concerning how much

BANK

you make.
 
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I have the anesthesia contract at a physician owned boutique hospital where we accept private insurance only. No medicare/medicaid.
The bulk of our practice is spines, orthopedics, and bariatrics.

Wow so you' re calling your next child Benjamin? ;)
 
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To elaborate, how much money you make IN THIS BIZ depends primarily on 4 things:

1) PAYER MIX: anesthesiologists are reimbursed for their services by many entities (assuming you are in a fee for service group where you eat what you kill and not an employee of a hospital or AMC).

Those entities that pay you for the cases your group performs vary

DRASTICALLY

in how much they pay you.....Aetna insurance company may pay you $2000.00 for a multi level spine case with instrumentation and the same case covered by Medicare may pay $600.00, for example.

Government (medicare/medicaid/Tricare) pay dismal.
Private insurance companies typically pay much better than government programs. How much better depends on where you live.
Some cases pay you in cash. Yep...
COLD HARD BENJAMINS.
Cash cases vary dramatically as well. Plastics cases don't pay much.
My gig does alotta bariatric surgery, the bulk of which are private pay (the patient pays for it prior to the procedure). We do well on the bariatric cases.
Attorney cases (lawsuit...attorney pays for case...car wreck, etc) are lucrative.

2) THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

Spine surgery and total joints are lucrative for us in the commercial insurance/cash pay world. ENT/general surg cases/plastics are less so, for example.

3) VOLUME

Easy to understand...the more cases you do the more money you make.

4) WHERE YOU LIVE

Harder to understand but it is what it is. Insurance companies pay more in certain areas of the country than others.



I have the anesthesia contract at a physician owned boutique hospital where we accept private insurance only. No medicare/medicaid.
The bulk of our practice is spines, orthopedics, and bariatrics.

In summary,

PAYER MIX

THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

VOLUME

WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE U.S.

are the primary determinants of a fee for service anesthesiologist in this country concerning how much

BANK

you make.

:thumbup:
 
Well thanks for debating this subject so heavily. I know anesthesiologists can make seven-figures I just was not sure if they could straight out of residency. I have heard of spine/neuro surgeons making 300-400k a month.

Thanks, guys... & girls
 
BULL %$#@

You dont collect well over a million. You are lieing through your teeth.

So you are making 800 plus a year..???. BULL $%^&
Why are you making so much more than everyone else??

are you special?

and you dont know what the &*() you are talking about

Why are you so angry?

I know people who were offered 7 figure jobs with 2 year partnership tracks in a desirable state, with high pay during the associate track. Some of the better known folks on here will back me up.
 
To elaborate, how much money you make IN THIS BIZ depends primarily on 4 things:

1) PAYER MIX: anesthesiologists are reimbursed for their services by many entities (assuming you are in a fee for service group where you eat what you kill and not an employee of a hospital or AMC).

Those entities that pay you for the cases your group performs varies

DRASTICALLY

in how much they pay you.....Aetna insurance company may pay you $2000.00 for a multi level spine case with instrumentation and the same case covered by Medicare may pay $600.00, for example.

Government (medicare/medicaid/Tricare) pay dismal.
Private insurance companies typically pay much better than government programs. How much better depends on where you live.
Some cases pay you in cash. Yep...
COLD HARD BENJAMINS.
Cash cases vary dramatically as well. Plastics cases don't pay much.
My gig does alotta bariatric surgery, the bulk of which are private pay (the patient pays for it prior to the procedure). We do well on the bariatric cases.
Attorney cases (lawsuit...attorney pays for case.....lumbar disc or anterior cervical fusion....car wreck, etc) are lucrative.

2) THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

Spine surgery and total joints are lucrative for us in the commercial insurance/cash pay world. ENT/general surg cases/plastics are less so, for example.

3) VOLUME

Easy to understand...the more cases you do the more money you make.

4) WHERE YOU LIVE

Harder to understand but it is what it is. Insurance companies pay more in certain areas of the country than others.



I have the anesthesia contract at a physician owned boutique hospital where we accept private insurance only. No medicare/medicaid.
The bulk of our practice is spines, orthopedics, and bariatrics.

In summary,

PAYER MIX

THE TYPE OF CASES YOU DO

VOLUME

WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE U.S.

are the primary determinants of a fee for service anesthesiologist in this country concerning how much

BANK

you make.

I believe you have forgotten to mention turnover time. Low turnover time means more startup units per day
 
BULL %$#@

You dont collect well over a million. You are lieing through your teeth.

So you are making 800 plus a year..???. BULL $%^&
Why are you making so much more than everyone else??

are you special?

and you dont know what the &*() you are talking about

$800K plus per year isn't even in the top 2% of anesthesiologist jobs in the country. Why are you so angry? Not my fault you work somewhere that doesn't know how to generate revenue.

If you wanted to make more than everyone else, you'd need to be getting $1.5M plus per partner per year. But I don't have friends in high enough places to find an opening at those jobs.
 
I don't think Mman is that far off. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised they collect more than that.

It is easily conceivable for an anesthesiologist to bill for 13,000 units per year (I'm not too off from that). Multiply that number by an average of $50 per unit and you get = 650k. Now add 4 CRNA's to that mix and you do the math. Def. possible (in billing terms).
Payor mix is everything. If your average unit is $65... then you are kicking arse.

:thumbup:
Even as a hospital employee in a small system, covering 2-3:1, we average 15,600 units/MD/year. And this is with slow turnovers due to multiple factors, very slow surgeons (think lap GB in the OR for 3 hrs), and poor pay or mix (> 10% worse than national avg for self-pay, Medicare/Medicaid patients). We still average > 50% regional MGMA in terms of reimbursement.

Certainly doable and fair.
 
The only anesthesiologists I know of making over 1 million are those senior, managing partners of large anesthesia groups or pain practices (like NAPA in NYC) who basically leech off of junior anesthesiologists and CRNAs. I have not heard of any anesthesia groups here in California with fair pay structures (e.g. pooled units, open financial books) with partners (much less brand new anesthesiologists) making over 1 million. There are groups making 700-800K but you work very hard for it. Might be different for anesthesiologists in other states though.
Personally, being part of a dual physician household, I prefer to have a average income and to have more time to spend with family and on my hobbies and to just to learn to live on less/avoid conspicuous consumption.
It really doesn't matter anymore anyways because if Obamacare continues to roll on (after the Supreme Court decision this morning).. all of these highly paid private practice docs (>1 mil a year) based on great insurance payer mixes will be taking a huge hit as all the insurance companies go on the decline and reimbursements crash.
 
The only anesthesiologists I know of making over 1 million are those senior, managing partners of large anesthesia groups or pain practices (like NAPA in NYC) who basically leech off of junior anesthesiologists and CRNAs. I have not heard of any anesthesia groups here in California with fair pay structures (e.g. pooled units, open financial books) with partners (much less brand new anesthesiologists) making over 1 million. There are groups making 700-800K but you work very hard for it. Might be different for anesthesiologists in other states though.
Personally, being part of a dual physician household, I prefer to have a average income and to have more time to spend with family and on my hobbies and to just to learn to live on less/avoid conspicuous consumption.
It really doesn't matter anymore anyways because if Obamacare continues to roll on (after the Supreme Court decision this morning).. all of these highly paid private practice docs (>1 mil a year) based on great insurance payer mixes will be taking a huge hit as all the insurance companies go on the decline and reimbursements crash.

So true. So very true.
 
hello there,
I am an anesthesiologist from Egypt.
And I only make about 3000 EGP permonth which nearly equals $ 500 :laugh:
And I work 24 hours/day and 5 days/week :(
What's your opinion??
 
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I think that sucks.

Hope you guys get the government you deserve.

Thank You
It is not an economic problem only but also cultural problem. Many people here in Egypt think that anesthesiologist are half educated doctors who didn't continue there education :laugh: so they had to choose anesthesia.
Do you have some wrong thoughts (about anesthesiologists) among people or not ??
 
Thank You
It is not an economic problem only but also cultural problem. Many people here in Egypt think that anesthesiologist are half educated doctors who didn't continue there education :laugh: so they had to choose anesthesia.
Do you have some wrong thoughts (about anesthesiologists) among people or not ??

I come from Saudi Arabia, and during my last visit, I noticed the same phenomenon. Outside of the medical community, anesthesiologists are not well respected, and are often considered second-class physicians, despite their astronomically high incomes (some make close to $30k per month TAX-FREE).
 
Interesting discussion. The only people who I personally have met who make the million dollar range are non par with the insurance companies. The other is owner of large group.
It all boils down to average collection per unit billed. My group averages about $50/unit collected. Which in my mind is about average. I wonder how a group could negotiate higher collection rates with various insurance providers. Turnover times is pretty insignificant. Volume would be fairly comparable across models. So what it boils down to is per unit collection rate per practice which tells the entire story. Low Medicare or Medicaid population would increase this or being paid at your billed rate. We are non par with a few insurance providers, and have a negotiated rate with the plastics dept. anyone want to help those of is understand how to better negotiate a higher compensation per unit with insurance contractors or mind giving us your per unit collection average(ie how much you receive per unit on average).
 
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Having control over the OR scheduling is very important. If the hospital and the anesthesia group are on the same page and can fill the operating rooms till 2-3 on every day it can make a huge difference. Getting a higher unit value is harder than filling your day. You could generate 1500 units per month vs 1000 per month and your income would go up from 500k to 750k. Intelligent block scheduling is the answer. It leads to increased efficiency and lesser starts with fuller days for anesthesiologists as well as OR personnel.
 
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Having control over the OR scheduling is very important. If the hospital and the anesthesia group are on the same page and can fill the operating rooms till 2-3 on every day it can make a huge difference. Getting a higher unit value is harder than filling your day. You could generate 1500 units per month vs 1000 per month and your income would go up from 500k to 750k. Intelligent block scheduling is the answer. It leads to increased efficiency and lesser starts with fuller days for anesthesiologists as well as OR personnel.

Inefficient OR management is one of the main problems I see here at our place. Not only is it an inefficient use of anesthesia services, it has got to be killing the hospital in regards to payroll and lost revenue. The other day they had 2 RN's and a scrub tech deep cleaning the men's locker room since there weren't any cases for them to do in their assigned rooms.
 
Hospitals make money whether it is a local or general or MAC. If the local falls in your line up, you have to sit around while they do the case. If your clock is not ticking, you're not making any money while the local case is going on.

We have dealt with this by having a separate block for local cases. That way there is no gap in our schedule. The anesthesiology department has to be closely involved in the scheduling process. That's the only way to improve efficiency.


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I realize this is off topic, but in regards to OR inefficiencies, do any of you allow "local" cases in your ORs? Here at my hospital it is allowed. I have true to disallow it at the OR steering committee but I come across as only interested in money. I explain that MAC means monitoring and that we don't need to give medication to bill for MAC. The problem is we have anesthesia providers sitting getting paid to do nothing while local cases happen. I tried to explain that having people enter the OR who are not fully npo puts all at risk. Just because it is local doesn't mean the patient doesn't need to follow anesthesia protocol. Also patients mention on their surveys that they didn't expect to have so much discomfort. I never saw local cases in the OR schedule as a resident. Ways I could bring this up to stop this? The hospital does have a small room for ditzel cases but for carpal tunnel and removing masses some surgeons want a bigger room with more assistants but done with local.
If you were the patient, would you accept paying for anesthesia for a procedure that could clearly be done under local? I wouldn't. What's the reason for having an anesthesiologist in the room?

On the other hand, cases under local should be scheduled either at the end of the day, or in a separate OR, not in-between anesthesia cases.
 
Interesting discussion. The only people who I personally have met who make the million dollar range are non par with the insurance companies. The other is owner of large group.
It all boils down to average collection per unit billed. My group averages about $50/unit collected. Which in my mind is about average. I wonder how a group could negotiate higher collection rates with various insurance providers. Turnover times is pretty insignificant. Volume would be fairly comparable across models. So what it boils down to is per unit collection rate per practice which tells the entire story. Low Medicare or Medicaid population would increase this or being paid at your billed rate. Our rate is at the high in my state, $135/unit. We are non par with a few insurance providers, and have a negotiated rate with the plastics dept. anyone want to help those of is understand how to better negotiate a higher compensation per unit with insurance contractors or mind giving us your per unit collection average(ie how much you receive per unit on average).

$50/unit is pretty darn good and well above average.
 
I realize this is off topic, but in regards to OR inefficiencies, do any of you allow "local" cases in your ORs? Here at my hospital it is allowed. I have true to disallow it at the OR steering committee but I come across as only interested in money. I explain that MAC means monitoring and that we don't need to give medication to bill for MAC. The problem is we have anesthesia providers sitting getting paid to do nothing while local cases happen. I tried to explain that having people enter the OR who are not fully npo puts all at risk. Just because it is local doesn't mean the patient doesn't need to follow anesthesia protocol. Also patients mention on their surveys that they didn't expect to have so much discomfort. I never saw local cases in the OR schedule as a resident. Ways I could bring this up to stop this? The hospital does have a small room for ditzel cases but for carpal tunnel and removing masses some surgeons want a bigger room with more assistants but done with local.

We schedule local cases in our OR's but these are not staffed by an anesthesiologist. And all the local cases are scheduled in a way that we are not sitting around doing nothing while they are in progress. (i.e usually at the end of the day when all anesthetic cases are done in that room)
 
$50/unit is pretty darn good and well above average.
I make no where near a mil per year. And our ORs are pretty busy. So I think the ones making a mil are non par with all their insurances and being paid charges or are in a plastics suite where they have amazing contracts with the surgeons. Only way I see it happening. Or owner of a large group
 
There are small freestanding surgicenters that do mostly Ortho cases and do very limited Medicare and zero Medicaid. Average point value could be 70 or more. It is not inconceivable for an anesthesiologist to crack a mill with no call or weekend cases. Few and far between but there are such practices out there.
 
Hey, guys

Alright to make a long story short one of my cousins is a head nurse at the Univ of Mich. He was telling me how this one resident who after he became a board certified anesthesiologist went out west as (I believe but am not sure) a pediatric anesthesiologist. Anyways, he was telling me this person went into private practice and was starting at seven-figures. Now, I am fully aware that anesthesiologists are among the highest compensated, non-surgical doctors out there, but seven figures starting? That's high even for a neurological/spine surgeon. So is this reasonable? Are there any anesthesiologists out there starting at seven-figures?

Thanks,

My group is production based. Out of 28 there where 2 who cleared 1M including retirement contributions in 2013.
 
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Wow that's it?? Impressed. That's barely even 1.5x avg work hours for 3-4x the salary. Amazing

Not exactly. Average work hours for full time anesthesiologist is probably about 45-50 per week, but that's also with probably average 8 weeks vacation. Average salary is also well above the $250 or $350K you seem to think it is.

So if you make $450 per year (for 44 weeks of work) at 45 hours per week, well let's just say simple math says working twice as much with 6 less weeks vacation, well then you can quickly do the math up to $1M. But nobody wants to work that much. You'll burn out way too soon.
 
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Not exactly. Average work hours for full time anesthesiologist is probably about 45-50 per week, but that's also with probably average 8 weeks vacation. Average salary is also well above the $250 or $350K you seem to think it is.

So if you make $450 per year (for 44 weeks of work) at 45 hours per week, well let's just say simple math says working twice as much with 6 less weeks vacation, well then you can quickly do the math up to $1M. But nobody wants to work that much. You'll burn out way too soon.

What? 45-50? CIM website listed anesthesiology at 61 last yr... I didn't know salary was that high.. The Max salaries I see on gasworks are all pretty low. That'd be nice to work 50 hr and make 400...
 
What? 45-50? CIM website listed anesthesiology at 61 last yr... I didn't know salary was that high.. The Max salaries I see on gasworks are all pretty low. That'd be nice to work 50 hr and make 400...

nobody averages 61 hours a week. As for it being nice to work 50 and make 400, well that's what they do.
 
What? 45-50? CIM website listed anesthesiology at 61 last yr... I didn't know salary was that high.. The Max salaries I see on gasworks are all pretty low. That'd be nice to work 50 hr and make 400...

Salaries are low when someone is sticking their hands into your pocket and taking your money in exchange for telling you what to do
 
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There are small freestanding surgicenters that do mostly Ortho cases and do very limited Medicare and zero Medicaid. Average point value could be 70 or more. It is not inconceivable for an anesthesiologist to crack a mill with no call or weekend cases. Few and far between but there are such practices out there.
if anyone knows of any positions similar to this and would like a hard working smart anesthesiologist, pm me.
 
if anyone knows of any positions similar to this and would like a hard working smart anesthesiologist, pm me.
add me to the pm as well. LOL

do you think anyone who knows of such positions would let anyone but a handpicked person know about it? The answer is nope. And if they DO tell you about it, it will be a 250K position and they will take the rest :) Welcome to anesthesia.
 
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I come from Saudi Arabia, and during my last visit, I noticed the same phenomenon. Outside of the medical community, anesthesiologists are not well respected, and are often considered second-class physicians, despite their astronomically high incomes (some make close to $30k per month TAX-FREE).

For a million a year, I'd be willing to be a third class citizen. They can keep the recognition, I'll take the money.
 
For a million a year, I'd be willing to be a third class citizen. They can keep the recognition, I'll take the money.
The problem is when you have neither. Fast forward to 2025. ;)
 
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If you have neither, it's time for a job change. 2025 is a decade away. That's plenty of time to make some money.

Exactly, when he sky falls it doesn't just happen. It's gradual. IF it happens at all.

Plenty of time to make good-great money (by most standards), live a good life, and square some things away for the future as well as take care of any debt......

Everyone needs to settle down just a bit.
 
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image.jpg
 
Everyone is giving anecdotes... Can an attending categorically say that he/she makes 700k+/year?
yes, though if I were a medical student I wouldn't count on ever being able to make that kind of salary except for perhaps due to the effects of inflation years down the road
 
Everyone is giving anecdotes... Can an attending categorically say that he/she makes 700k+/year?

The only people I know that make that are pain docs who own their own practice and are so well established that they are nearly 100% procedural based and rarely take CMS patients. I wouldn't plan on making that if you are going into pain right now. Both of these individuals told me it took them 10-20yrs to get their practices established and that the golden years of pain are over.

I do know of general anesthesiologists that clear $600k doing their own cases in fair, equally compensated practices with production incentives. However they never have time to enjoy it as they work 80 hrs or more per week with 1-2 weeks vacation at the most, sometimes no vacation at all.
 
The only people I know that make that are pain docs who own their own practice and are so well established that they are nearly 100% procedural based and rarely take CMS patients. I wouldn't plan on making that if you are going into pain right now. Both of these individuals told me it took them 10-20yrs to get their practices established and that the golden years of pain are over.

I do know of general anesthesiologists that clear $600k doing their own cases in fair, equally compensated practices with production incentives. However they never have time to enjoy it as they work 80 hrs or more per week with 1-2 weeks vacation at the most, sometimes no vacation at all.

That's the only way it can be done, kids.
 
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