How difficult is it to make a living in private practice?

[Negrodamus]

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I've been reading The Hammer's Let's Buy a Dental Practice thread and it piqued my interest in how one would run a medical practice. How difficult is it to make a living as a typical internist/family physician in private practice? Are there any pertinent issues that newly graduated residents should be aware of?

Yes, I know that I'm probably a decade or more away from considering this but I'd still like to know the information and it may benefit someone else.

 

[shaggy alfresco]

There are lots of resources out there. Its simply about having business sense. Now everything from the receptionist salary to purchasing garbage bins and chairs comes out of your income. If you have never been out in the world, you may not realize how those costs can quickly add up. And they can. And it's a lot of additional headaches like collections....do you want to deal with that? That's why many decide to take a salary cut and work as employees of a hospital since all of that is taken care of.

 

[PMPMD]

You're wise to start thinking about this now, since most med schools and residencies give minimal coverage to the topic of the business of medicine.

 

[Negrodamus]

So... I take it you all are a bunch of socialist Obamaist freedom haters.

 

[Frazier]

So... I take it you all are a bunch of socialist Obamaist freedom haters.

In socialist America, you don't pay for healthcare - healthcare pays for you.