Hca

[DrBrown]

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I just received an offer from HCA's stipend program: $3k/mo my last year (just started CA-3) of residency plus a $3K sign on with a two year committment to work in an HCA owned hospital. Anyone have any experience with HCA? They own hospitals throughout the southeast with a concentration in TN and FL. Comments are really appreciated.

 

[militarymd]

I just received an offer from HCA's stipend program: $3k/mo my last year (just started CA-3) of residency plus a $3K sign on with a two year committment to work in an HCA owned hospital. Anyone have any experience with HCA? They own hospitals throughout the southeast with a concentration in TN and FL. Comments are really appreciated.

I did a little nosing around for you....I have contacts in low places...this is the response:

This is what I would tell the dude.....

“HCA is a well run for profit hospital management company with facilities mainly across the southern US. Like an other organization offering surgical services, having a stable, strong, and cost effective anesthesia service is an important goal.

I would suspect that the contract offered will not be with HCA, but with its affiliated physician group. Being a for profit company, it would important to determine what price you’re going to pay for the $40K offered. It would be good to know the terms of the two year contract and where you are going to assigned. The anesthesiologists’ contract from HCA that I have reviewed have been at market price, but dependent on both personal and corporate performance bonuses.

It is quite possible that the HCA contract might be as good as or better than the contract you will be offered by an established group in desirable area. Another longer term issues is how do you feel about being an employee of a large organization as opposed to being an owner of your own business in a local anesthesia group.

This might not be a bad offer, but the “devil is in the details.”

 

[militarymd]

Here's a little e-mail exchange with a colleague


sounds very much like the US Navy....sign here...we pay you...than we have you...and oh yeah, did we tell you about Cuba? It's warm and sunny.

There’s some of that, but try this out for size.

1. HCA cancels a group’s contract (happened last Friday in Florida)
2. Rehires the docs they wants ( and ~ 10% less than current MGMA with bonus clauses (I hear about these)
3. Brings on 1/3 of the practice of new docs ( and 40% of MGMA)
4. Ask the older docs to take 20% pay cut (or docs “don’t make bonus”)
5. Move new docs up about 10% per year
6. Replace higher Cost docs with cheaper help (like they do with airline pilots

 

[DrBrown]

Thanks

I appreciate the comments. I really do not know if I would be better off as an employee or on a partnership track somewhere. I would certainly need to know where I was going and the group that I would be signing with before I accepted this contract. It is funny my wife said the same thing about the offer..."sounds like the military". Anybody else have any feelings about HCA? Supposedly this stipend is separate from any compensation from the group that I would join.

 

[Pilot Doc]

having a stable, strong, and cost effective anesthesia service is an important goal.

The question to ask yourself is WHY is HCA offering you this? How does this help their bottom line. Put another way, why don't they hire their anesthesiologists the way everyone else does: place an ad (or make phone calls) when they need help and structure the job such that people will want it. Presumably, there's something wrong with their jobs and they find it cheaper to lure hungry CA3's rather than making the job attractive to the market.

That doesn't mean it's a horrible job. It might actually be a very good job with sub-par pay. And if you've got hungry mouths to feed it might be a decent trade off. But really $40K can get eaten up REAL quick if the job isn't quite right - either they pay you $20K less/year than what you otherwise would have had or maybe you leave after two years and tail/moving/etc costs eat up most of that $40K.

 

[bubalus]

Whenever somebody is offering a signing bonus, I start to hear that little voice. I'll readily admit that it's not necessarily true of all situations, but if the location is good and the job is good, why are they offering a signing bonus? I'll also admit that what I view as a good job and a good location may not be what you view. And your priorities may be different than mine.

I've heard a lot of the "Watch out for the management companies like_____." Fill in the blank with any AMC--Sheridan, NAPA, etc. I don't hear a lot of, "I work for _______ AMC, and I love my job." There is a guy on the Sheridan thread who has some decent things to say about Sheridan, and I'm glad he has, because I don't know if a lot of the people who are saying things about the AMCs have direct experience with them. That doesn't mean that what they say isn't true. Also, I'm trusting that they anonymous guy on an internet forum is actually speaking the trugh. Caveat emptor.

One thing I have observed is that the AMCs like Sheridan and NAPA seem to be advertising the same jobs over and over for months if not years. Go back through some of the old journals or Anesthesiology News and see if those vacancies from a year ago are still vacant. Again, if they're so good, why are those jobs going unfilled?

I'd have to have a very compelling reason to work for an AMC, like I absolutely MUST be in a specific location, and AMC jobs are all there is. But your reasons may not be mine.