Hourly Rate Negotiation

[Timeoutofmind]

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Advice please!

I do pain, employed by a hospital, eat what you kill model.

Major metro area in midwest.

Negotiating with the hospital to work for them one day a week in the OR. All pay on top of pain pay (and I already have benefits through the pain contract).

Basically first start till around 4 or so (around 8 hours a day). No weekend or call responsibility.

They offered 200 an hour.

What do you think?

 

[San Marzano]

Some people will say it’s good and some will say it’s not enough. Impossible to make that call for you. Can you get a job somewhere else working one day per week for 8 hours making more than $200/hr?

 

[Consigliere]

Sounds fair.

 

[Southpaw]

Sounds great to me

 

[Notorious T.E.E.]

It's solid, but I doubt they started with their best offer. Ask for more, and ask for an 8 hour guarantee.

 

[Guillemot]

Asking for a minimum hours is definitely a reasonable request. Commuting in for like 1-2 hrs of work would be lame. Set the minimum at whatever you think is worth your time. Maybe also have some stipulation that they should inform you x days in advance if you are not needed so that you can make plans.

 

[Stank811]

The min I have seen in Midwest is 250/hr which is probably why they went 200. Locums in Midwest the organization would be paying closer to 400-500hr for your services depending on location.

 

[dannyboy1]

If it were a full time job would = 8 hrs/day x 200 x 5 days/week x 52 (assume 6 of those weeks PTO = 416,000/year. Not a bad offer at all for a day job with no call responsibility. So does breaking it down into a once a week position make it any worse?

 

[kidthor]

I had a southeast US locums group offer $150/hr for peds anesthesia coverage. I told them I would not work for any less than $225. They told me to take a hike. Just FYI...

 

[jonessoda1212]

The min I have seen in Midwest is 250/hr which is probably why they went 200. Locums in Midwest the organization would be paying closer to 400-500hr for your services depending on location.

$500/h?? Is anyone freaking paying that, cause that's >1mil/year at 40h/week. Or for the OP, his one day alone would be ~200k.

 

[dchz]

I had a southeast US locums group offer $150/hr for peds anesthesia coverage. I told them I would not work for any less than $225. They told me to take a hike. Just FYI...

My thought is that the hospital is prob paying $225 or more, but they want their cut? no?

 

[Ezekiel2517]

Seems a little on the low side to me considering the region of the country

 

[sniderwes]

$500/h?? Is anyone freaking paying that, cause that's >1mil/year at 40h/week. Or for the OP, his one day alone would be ~200k.

Right, is this accurate? I wasn't aware locums were so lucrative to be in the >$1 million range.

 

[ryanjmy]

$500/h?? Is anyone freaking paying that, cause that's >1mil/year at 40h/week. Or for the OP, his one day alone would be ~200k.

A disparate hospital will absolutely pay $400-500/hr for the services of md to avoid shutting down ORs. At the same time they’ll only offer the equivalent to half of that to the perm guys. It’s all about control.

 

[Timeoutofmind]

Thanks for the input everyone. Much appreciate your time.

 

[BLADEMDA]

Thanks for the input everyone. Much appreciate your time.

Counter with $225 per hour. Sure, $200 is acceptable but $225 is fair and reflects your market area better.

 

[Stank811]

Counter with $225 per hour. Sure, $200 is acceptable but $225 is fair and reflects your market area better.

If you want to give a discount to whomever is asking 225 works. Otherwise I would say my basement price is 250. And as always there would be other items to negotiate as well if I was establishing a contractual agreement for coverage.

 

[hypnosMD]

If you want to give a discount to whomever is asking 225 works. Otherwise I would say my basement price is 250. And as always there would be other items to negotiate as well if I was establishing a contractual agreement for coverage.

I agree with this. I have done work for an AMC that would pay its employed docs virtual peanuts after you factored in hours/call burden etc. They payed me $250/hr and 1.5X overtime as a 1099. The benefits they offered W-2's were a joke and just illustrated how financially ignorant doctors can be. This stuff ain't rocket science. Demand transparency. Any institution that has nothing to hide will want transparency too!

 

[caligas]

Is it common and practical with locums to negotiate your own rate directly with the hospital? I assume they write the contract and you just have to get skilled at reading legal jargon?

 

[IMGASMD]

Is it common and practical with locums to negotiate your own rate directly with the hospital? I assume they write the contract and you just have to get skilled at reading legal jargon?

You can try. But remember the hospital already pays probably twice as much as you’re getting to locum company. For that 200/hr, they’re probably paying 400-500. It’s going to be tough, but not impossible. Especially if you do good by them.

 

[caligas]

You can try. But remember the hospital already pays probably twice as much as you’re getting to locum company. For that 200/hr, they’re probably paying 400-500. It’s going to be tough, but not impossible. Especially if you do good by them.

So work directly with hospital and split the difference, $300/hr. Skip the middle man, right?

 

[Timeoutofmind]

I agree with this. I have done work for an AMC that would pay its employed docs virtual peanuts after you factored in hours/call burden etc. They payed me $250/hr and 1.5X overtime as a 1099. The benefits they offered W-2's were a joke and just illustrated how financially ignorant doctors can be. This stuff ain't rocket science. Demand transparency. Any institution that has nothing to hide will want transparency too!

So you were making 250 an hour working no nights/weekends/holidays? With 1.5x if you ended up staying late?

That seems very high for a mommy-tract position, no?

 

[narcotics999]

You can try. But remember the hospital already pays probably twice as much as you’re getting to locum company. For that 200/hr, they’re probably paying 400-500. It’s going to be tough, but not impossible. Especially if you do good by them.

Some of the ad of locum mentio

So work directly with hospital and split the difference, $300/hr. Skip the middle man, right?

Surely if you know the hospital. In reality, we don't know. If you read the locum ad, the location is very vague.

 

[IMGASMD]

Surely if you know the hospital. In reality, we don't know. If you read the locum ad, the location is very vague.

The hospital may not want to deal with you directly either. They have locum company who promise they can fill all time slots, they may not want to do schedule themselves, or deal with all the travel, etc etc. if it can be fixed by money, sometimes it’s best to fix by money.

 

[Stank811]

So you were making 250 an hour working no nights/weekends/holidays? With 1.5 that if you ended up staying late?

That seems very high for a mommy-tract position, no?

No it is not that high if you are going to work everyday of the week doing anything and everything asked if you with no benefits (1099). Some people want to give there availability on a weekly basis...in those situations you might not be worth as much..all depends. If you are supervising 4 rooms for 8 hrs then 250 is not enough.

Best to understand how we get paid and understand what you will be doing to gauge what you should ask for and what a group or system would be willing to pay.

 

[caligas]

Some of the ad of locum mentio

Surely if you know the hospital. In reality, we don't know. If you read the locum ad, the location is very vague.

I get it. Some administrative type can deal with known quantity locums agency or random doctor, and they aren’t the one paying for it so they go for big locums company.