career outlook

[Kevin3Ford]

I'm a PT and practice with a combined manual therapy and exercise approach. I understand that DO's can go a number of routes, but does anyone have ballpark figures for salary ranges. Let's narrow it down and say; a DO who practices in a private practice but does not own the clinic and treats musculoskeletal dysfunctions.

Thanks!

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[Idiopathic]

$80k - $350k

 

[(nicedream)]

$80k - $350k

Yeah, standard physician salary range, MD/DO. Do a google search for salary surveys, but take them with a grain of salt.

 

[coolness]

Isn't 80k a little low? According to the bls guide, the lowest salary is around $150,000 (family practice).

 

[(nicedream)]

150k as the lowest (FP) is a pretty sunny figure. 80k may be a little low, but I'm sure there are FP docs out there that don't clear 100.

 

[Fermata]

You'll probably never be rich but if you've got good saving habits then you should have pretty good security.

 

[jgrady]

I just got back from interviewing a couple MDs at the Eisenhower Center in Palm Springs and they were by far the most upfront physicians I've talked about the financial side of the profession.

The jist is that surgery, specialists and primary care physicians are being designed by Medicare (and therefore most insurance companies) to make $90k to $150k. In other words, $90k if you want a couple afternoons off for golf or family and $150k if you work your butt off. According to these guys (with from 2 to 20 years in practice) the trend is to equalize specialists and primary care physicians similar to medicine in Europe.

Obviously you can make more by going for a practice that avoids a dependance on Medicare and insurance patients, but that is pretty difficult these days and may be impossible if national healthcare gets passed and more people start going overseas for elective surgery.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Isn't 80k a little low? According to the bls guide, the lowest salary is around $150,000 (family practice).

Ha, family practice is the lowest paid specialty overall, and many will make below 150k. Working for governmental agencies also pays low, and many positions with the government offer a starting salary of 80k. It is only with private medicine that you can earn well above those figures.

According to this site, the AVERAGE for FP is 122,000. Obviously that most are paid below 150,000.

http://www.physicianssearch.com/physician/salary.html

 

[cooldreams]

wow, that would be crazy, if i did twice the schooling as another doc, i would wanna be paid more for equal working time i think. hmm... anyone else know anything about that???

I just got back from interviewing a couple MDs at the Eisenhower Center in Palm Springs and they were by far the most upfront physicians I've talked about the financial side of the profession.

The jist is that surgery, specialists and primary care physicians are being designed by Medicare (and therefore most insurance companies) to make $90k to $150k. In other words, $90k if you want a couple afternoons off for golf or family and $150k if you work your butt off. According to these guys (with from 2 to 20 years in practice) the trend is to equalize specialists and primary care physicians similar to medicine in Europe.

Obviously you can make more by going for a practice that avoids a dependance on Medicare and insurance patients, but that is pretty difficult these days and may be impossible if national healthcare gets passed and more people start going overseas for elective surgery.

 

[jgrady]

wow, that would be crazy, if i did twice the schooling as another doc, i would wanna be paid more for equal working time i think. hmm... anyone else know anything about that???

I thought the same thing regarding residency durations. The two surgeons I spoke to responded by saying that is how they do it in Europe and that is why you see openings in surgical residencies these days.