Sim -
Haven't really heard from anybody but med students and residents on this board. My experience working as an RN prior to med school gave me the following impression, but I don't know the specific $ details since it was all thirdhand. As an employee of a hospital, you are paid a salary and your malpractice insurance is paid as a benefit, like the health insurance, college stipends, etc. You see a set number of patients to meet your review criteria to keep your job, get a merit raise, etc. In a group practice - you are a business partner in a group. The money made by the practice is lumped together, overhead is paid (malpractice insurance premiums included), then the profits are divided up based on contribution to the profits (or whatever formula the group has to divide up the money). The plus side to being employed by a hospital is you don't feel like it's money you are paying, but you're paid less money as salary because they are paying so much in benefits. In the group practice, your hard work can get you more money, but its really variable. And having a lawsuit filed against one of your partners can substantially increase your premiums, since you have a group malpractice insurance policy. My understanding is that the group practices buy group malpractice policies, because it's cheaper per doctor than buying individual policies (the Sam's Club philosophy). My understanding was that the doctors employed by the hospital started around $180K salary (here in TX anyways), don't know about the group practice docs.
Good luck to you.
