Doctors who work a lot of overtime

[1AO KTG]

So does this give any significant rise in salary? Will an doctor of any specialty who usually works 40 hours a week and makes 175k, have a huge raise in compensation if they push that number up around 70?

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[DrBowtie]

Depends on payment structure. If its solely eat what you kill, then you'd have to have billable items to fill those hours. If you're straight salaried then probably nothing more.
If you're doing shift work and picking up extra shifts from people then you'd be guarenteed more.

 

[DrYoda]

Yes, the more you work the more revenue you generate which usually leads to a higher income by one mechanism or another. However, you don't get "overtime" pay, reimbursement for hour 70 is the same reimbursement rate as hour 7 (although in PP you may keep a larger percent of it, if we assume some fixed component to overhead).

Edit: in the case of being salaried there's often an incentive component to pay, otherwise you'd be insane to work a minute over the amount agreed on in your contract.

 

[docB]

There are so many different ways of getting paid in medicine that your question is very complex to answer. The shortest version I can come up with is that in most cases if you work more you will get paid more.

It's important to define some terms here though. A salary usually means a set amount you get paid per some time period and it does not change based on hours or anything else. People in medicine who are on a salary are rare. Those who are often have some bonus structure to compensate them for additional productivity.

Most physicians are paid based on billing patients for professional services. If you work more, see more patients, do more procedures and so on you will make more as you send out more bills. This is why a surgeon who works more hours, presumably doing more surgeries, will make more than a comparable surgeon who works less hours.

Some doctors are paid hourly. Many Emergency Physicians are compensated that way. So more hours = more money. The model in EM that is becoming predominant though is that you are paid based on your productivity.

Here's a link to a thread about EM compensation.

 

[1AO KTG]

Yes, the more you work the more revenue you generate which usually leads to a higher income by one mechanism or another. However, you don't get "overtime" pay, reimbursement for hour 70 is the same reimbursement rate as hour 7 (although in PP you may keep a larger percent of it, if we assume some fixed component to overhead).

Edit: in the case of being salaried there's often an incentive component to pay, otherwise you'd be insane to work a minute over the amount agreed on in your contract.

I just dont understand why a doctor cant easily get higher pay this way. Everyone wants to talk about investment banking being the best way to make a living, and med school tuition isnt worth it. Why not work like the investment banker (80 hour work week) to make up for build up debt.

 

[DrYoda]

I just dont understand why a doctor cant easily get higher pay this way. Everyone wants to talk about investment banking being the best way to make a living, and med school tuition isnt worth it. Why not work like the investment banker (80 hour work week) to make up for build up debt.

😕 Everyone has thus far agreed more hours=more money. A barrier not mentioned yet is that most docs already work significantly more than 40 hours a week, so increasing hours by 50+% isn't very feasible without a massive hit to your personal life + possible lack of demand at those times.

 

[DrBowtie]

I just dont understand why a doctor cant easily get higher pay this way. Everyone wants to talk about investment banking being the best way to make a living, and med school tuition isnt worth it. Why not work like the investment banker (80 hour work week) to make up for build up debt.

There aren't always appendices to remove, colons to scope, moles to examine outside of normal clinic hours. Being on the job doesn't always mean you are getting paid for that time unless you are hourly like ER.

 

[zbruinz]

I just dont understand why a doctor cant easily get higher pay this way. Everyone wants to talk about investment banking being the best way to make a living, and med school tuition isnt worth it. Why not work like the investment banker (80 hour work week) to make up for build up debt.

Good luck getting over that investment banking hiring freeze.

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/2011-full-time-hiring-freeze

 

[DoctwoB]

I just dont understand why a doctor cant easily get higher pay this way. Everyone wants to talk about investment banking being the best way to make a living, and med school tuition isnt worth it. Why not work like the investment banker (80 hour work week) to make up for build up debt.

Many attendings do work 80 hour (or more) weeks, and those numbers are figured into the salary surveys. So if you work 40hrs/wk as a surgeon expect to make less then the average, as you'll be working less then the average.

Others choose to make less money and have more family/leisure time. It's not always about making the maximum amount of money.