How frequent are these salaries?

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I recently read about a neurosurgeon earning over 5 million a year in Alaska, and was wondering how common these salaries are for some of these competitive fields (especially in places with higher cost of living). I also know a few friends who claim to be making that much (ent making over a million and anorthopaedic surgeon around 8 years into his practice supposedly making around 2.5m). Of course these salaries are not commonplace, but it looks like they're not extremely rare either. Are there actually a sizeable number (say 5%) of surgeons in these fields earning well over a million? Makes me feel bad for wanting to go into radiology.
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Link2 said:
I recently read about a neurosurgeon earning over 5 million a year in Alaska, and was wondering how common these salaries are for some of these competitive fields (especially in places with higher cost of living). I also know a few friends who claim to be making that much (ent making over a million and anorthopaedic surgeon around 8 years into his practice supposedly making around 2.5m). Of course these salaries are not commonplace, but it looks like they're not extremely rare either. Are there actually a sizeable number (say 5%) of surgeons in these fields earning well over a million? Makes me feel bad for wanting to go into radiology.
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Anyway, to answer your question, no, these salaries are NOT common. Not even for the more lucrative specialties.

Furthermore, the places with higher costs of living also tend to be the most desirable places to live (Boston, NY, LA, Miami, SF, Seattle), and salaries there tend to be lower. At least, not high enough to make up for the higher cost of living.

The reason why that guy was making so much is that it's Alaska, and it's hard to get physicians/nurses to go there. So they pay better. Generally, the rule of thumb is: the more rural, the higher the salary.
 
smq123 said:
Anyway, to answer your question, no, these salaries are NOT common. Not even for the more lucrative specialties.

Furthermore, the places with higher costs of living also tend to be the most desirable places to live (Boston, NY, LA, Miami, SF, Seattle), and salaries there tend to be lower. At least, not high enough to make up for the higher cost of living.

The reason why that guy was making so much is that it's Alaska, and it's hard to get physicians/nurses to go there. So they pay better. Generally, the rule of thumb is: the more rural, the higher the salary.
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And he is probably q1 which does tend to pay more
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
And he is probably q1 which does tend to pay more
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My favorite part of that document is when they list all the properties and investments that the guy bought. He bought a Borders bookstore for >$4 million. Gee, I wonder how THAT investment worked out for him?
 
Link2 said:
I recently read about a neurosurgeon earning over 5 million a year in Alaska, and was wondering how common these salaries are for some of these competitive fields (especially in places with higher cost of living). I also know a few friends who claim to be making that much (ent making over a million and anorthopaedic surgeon around 8 years into his practice supposedly making around 2.5m). Of course these salaries are not commonplace, but it looks like they're not extremely rare either. Are there actually a sizeable number (say 5%) of surgeons in these fields earning well over a million? Makes me feel bad for wanting to go into radiology.
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Is making 1 million or more common in medicine? No, it's probably very rare.

However it also isn't uncommon for surgeons to make over 1 million per year. Neurosurgery sits right below a million and fields like Ortho, CT, Vascular, IR, Plastics, ophtho could hit a million depending on the practice set up and your business savvy. Maybe if you do everything perfectly and own your operating center and employ other physicians you could get up to the 2-3+ million range, but this would be incredibly rare.

So although most doctors won't be making 1 million or more per year, a small but not insignificant number of surgeons across the board probably make right around a million per year.
 
Dr. Doctor MD said:
Is making 1 million or more common in medicine? No, it's probably very rare.

However it also isn't uncommon for surgeons to make over 1 million per year. Neurosurgery sits right below a million and fields like Ortho, CT, Vascular, IR, Plastics, ophtho could hit a million depending on the practice set up and your business savvy. Maybe if you do everything perfectly and own your operating center and employ other physicians you could get up to the 2-3+ million range, but this would be incredibly rare.

So although most doctors won't be making 1 million or more per year, a small but not insignificant number of surgeons across the board probably make right around a million per year.
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Yep. If you either a) work all the time b) own your surgery center or c) employ other doctors in a practice you own its quite possible.
 
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Dr. Doctor MD said:
Maybe if you do everything perfectly and own your operating center and employ other physicians you could get up to the 2-3+ million range, but this would be incredibly rare.
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Whoa, so even when the setup is perfect a doctor is limited to 2-3 million dollars a year? That's so unfair when the random below average actor in Hollywood makes 10m+/year or average peanut-brained NFL-player makes 3-5 millions a year. Heck even somebody who just sits on his ass all day playing games (pewdiepie) makes 8 figures a year.

I will never have respect for celebrities or other folks who have built their fortune on luck. Worst part about it is when they harp on how "difficult" they have it. Disgusting.
 
I wonder why Neurosurgeon salaries aren’t the highest in the academic setting compared to cardiac surgeons, etc, etc but in the PP/community setting they blow everyone else out of the water?
 
Lothric said:
Whoa, so even when the setup is perfect a doctor is limited to 2-3 million dollars a year? That's so unfair when the random below average actor in Hollywood makes 10m+/year or average peanut-brained NFL-player makes 3-5 millions a year. Heck even somebody who just sits on his ass all day playing games (pewdiepie) makes 8 figures a year.

I will never have respect for celebrities or other folks who have built their fortune on luck. Worst part about it is when they harp on how "difficult" they have it. Disgusting.
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+pity+
 
Skindoc83 said:
If your primary goal for going into medicine then don’t. Go work in finance. If you want to maximize earning potential as a physician then move to an undesirable location. The more out of the way, the more you make.
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Some people would rather enter a field that relative to other fields such as entreprenurship guarantees them a salary of 200k/year instead of risking and ending up only making 70-90k a year. Once again, another reason why I will never have respect for people who have built their fortune on luck.
 
LebronManning said:
I wonder why Neurosurgeon salaries aren’t the highest in the academic setting compared to cardiac surgeons, etc, etc but in the PP/community setting they blow everyone else out of the water?
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In some places they are. Depends on volume of spine fusions.
 
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EMhopeful2 said:
Not luck. They had a somewhat uncommon skillset that was worth a lot of money to someone. If being pewdiepie was that easy everyone would do it.
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LMAO I know youtubers who are way better than Pewdiepie. How come they aren't as big? Oh, because they were not on Youtube the right time (hence, they weren't as lucky).

When the pioneers have occupied a field, they will form the ceiling. They are the ceiling. The folks who join thereafter will never reach the same ceiling, but will always be below it.
 
EMhopeful2 said:
You might think they’re better than him but others probably don’t which is why he’s so popular. He’s been around a while but so have others and while others have failed (fred) he hasn’t which says something. I don’t like his videos either btw, just sharing my observations.
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You're wrong. There is evidence that most people click on the first video that shows up in search on Youtube because their alghorithm works that way. Hence, less people are likely to ever find the other channels.
 
EMhopeful2 said:
And he appears first because he's popular because a lot of people like him.
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yeah, but the point I was making is that as a result of being numbero uno in the search, NEW people are less likely to become regulars of other channels compared to Pewdiepie. And hence, he will grow while oppressing other channels because he was lucky starting Youtube in its early days.
 
There are opportunities in medicine that can be quite lucrative, however they generally require 1) doing non-clinical work or 2) being entrepreneurial. A reported salary of $5 million isn't common in any field. However, breaking into the 7 figures isn't completely infeasible depending on the field and type of work you do. Being a physician in hospital administration at the executive level, for example, can get you a fairly high salary, as can starting a successful practice (likely with multiple providers and/or locations). But for straight-up clinical work, it's very unlikely you're going to break that barrier unless you're working like a dog - and even then it's just not feasible for most fields.
 
NickNaylor said:
There are opportunities in medicine that can be quite lucrative, however they generally require 1) doing non-clinical work or 2) being entrepreneurial. A reported salary of $5 million isn't common in any field. However, breaking into the 7 figures isn't completely infeasible depending on the field and type of work you do. Being a physician in hospital administration at the executive level, for example, can get you a fairly high salary, as can starting a successful practice (likely with multiple providers and/or locations). But for straight-up clinical work, it's very unlikely you're going to break that barrier unless you're working like a dog - and even then it's just not feasible for most fields.
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Exactly. Money has to make money. Most physicians I know who earn more than 1 million have lucrative side hustles, smart investments, or both.


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Skindoc83 said:
If your primary goal for going into medicine then don’t. Go work in finance. If you want to maximize earning potential as a physician then move to an undesirable location. The more out of the way, the more you make.
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Lol cmon... In finance you're almost guaranteed to end up making 60k and climbing your way slowly to very low 6 figs (at best). The whole "go into business/finance" is always said by people with 0 experience in those sectors. Trust me, if you're making it big in those fields then you're working 100+ hour weeks with much lower odds of success than matching derm.
And if you're thinking entrepreneurship, I mean sure... but starting a business in medicine carries drastically higher success rates and stable profits than other fields. Otherwise in other sectors, your successful business owner will work neurosurgery hours for less than a PGY1's salary for years. And even then it's rolling the dice.
 
Medical students are qualified to give advice about getting into and through medical school.

Most have no experience in anything else, and thus, "advice" about many things like lifestyle, romance, other careers should be taken with a grain of salt.
 
Median Neurosurgeon per MGMA (which mostly looks at private practice) has a total compensation of just over $800k, which is the highest of any median. 90th percentile (as high up as the data goes) is ~$1.4million.

You can imagine if the 90th percentile is $1.4million, then the 95th, 99th, etc percentiles may be significantly higher. You're talking about such small numbers that it's impossible to get accurate data at that point though.
 
Raryn said:
Median Neurosurgeon per MGMA (which mostly looks at private practice) has a total compensation of just over $800k, which is the highest of any median. 90th percentile (as high up as the data goes) is ~$1.4million.

You can imagine if the 90th percentile is $1.4million, then the 95th, 99th, etc percentiles may be significantly higher. You're talking about such small numbers that it's impossible to get accurate data at that point though.
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Are these salaries going to continue in the future? I assume they’re mostly from spine procedures. Any indication reimbursement would get cut?
 
LebronManning said:
Are these salaries going to continue in the future? I assume they’re mostly from spine procedures. Any indication reimbursement would get cut?
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Also just FYI— non private practice neurosurgery doesn’t make as much. At least none of the ones I know and work with.


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OrthoTraumaMD said:
Also just FYI— non private practice neurosurgery doesn’t make as much. At least none of the ones I know and work with.


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Do you by chance know why that is? I mean I understand all academic physicians make less than PP, but it seems to be exaggerated in neurosurgery where they are the top earners in PP but not necessarily so in academics.
 
I would defer to my neurosurgery colleagues but ortho and neuro compete (hospital based) as to who has the higher salary. So what I have seen is 450-500K average. As to why that happens? You can be a lot less scrupulous in private practice, operating on everything. A lot of hospitals pay a salary rather than offering rvu incentives which limits how much you can make.


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OrthoTraumaMD said:
I would defer to my neurosurgery colleagues but ortho and neuro compete (hospital based) as to who has the higher salary. So what I have seen is 450-500K average. As to why that happens? You can be a lot less scrupulous in private practice, operating on everything. A lot of hospitals pay a salary rather than offering rvu incentives which limits how much you can make.


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Also, spine pays more than a lot of the stuff you get in an academic practice. Tumors and whatnot.
 
W19 said:
800k to 1 mil is the kind of money I think IM doc should make. These are the people who work the most in the hospital
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But the work is mindless and not intelligent for the most part, sorry.
Im a current prelim/med resident at at very large hospital. med reconcilliations, taking mindless histories to fill out the H&P right to properly bill, organizing outpt follow ups, consulting, working with social work, taking dumb calls from people who know nothing while cross covering 5 floors of patients, repetitive paperwork up the wazoo, etc.
Simply tediously putting in many hours is not what determines who is paid more.
 
W19 said:
800k to 1 mil is the kind of money I think IM doc should make. These are the people who work the most in the hospital
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Gross 1 million bucks a year should honestly be the minimum starting salary for any attending no matter what specialty and that should be for a 40 hour week too.
 
PhillyMed777 said:
But the work is mindless and not intelligent for the most part, sorry.
Im a current prelim/med resident at at very large hospital. med reconcilliations, taking mindless histories to fill out the H&P right to properly bill, organizing outpt follow ups, consulting, working with social work, taking dumb calls from people who know nothing while cross covering 5 floors of patients, repetitive paperwork up the wazoo, etc.
Simply tediously putting in many hours is not what determines who is paid more.
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I disagree about the work is mindless and not intelligent for the most part... Some of it is to be honest. I do agree about everything else you say.
 
W19 said:
800k to 1 mil is the kind of money I think IM doc should make. These are the people who work the most in the hospital
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“Work the most”? Lol ....you are aware of caps on medical services that don’t exist in surgery, yes? As well as our longer residency, longer hours, and lack of shift work?

Not to mention the risk and reward. The risk for a neurosurgeon and their patient if a mistake is made is astronomical.

Also, a bunch of advanced practitioners are acting as primary care docs to tons of people. No one can “replace” a properly trained surgeon.


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How in the hell is a 5 million dollar “salary” not a flagrant violation of fair market value and stark law? How could his actual collections be anywhere near that?

How do I get my whistleblower bonus plz
 
OrthoTraumaMD said:
“Work the most”? Lol ....you are aware of caps on medical services that don’t exist in surgery, yes? As well as our longer residency, longer hours, and lack of shift work?

Not to mention the risk and reward. The risk for a neurosurgeon and their patient if a mistake is made is astronomical.

Also, a bunch of advanced practitioners are acting as primary care docs to tons of people. No one can “replace” a properly trained surgeon.


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And a mid-level can't truly replace a well trained PCP either.

Just because a stupid intern is being stupid is no reason to bash other specialties.
 
W19 said:
800k to 1 mil is the kind of money I think IM doc should make. These are the people who work the most in the hospital
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LOL

Not even close

You can't keep posting crap like this then wonder why no one takes you seriously
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
And a mid-level can't truly replace a well trained PCP either.

Just because a stupid intern is being stupid is no reason to bash other specialties.
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Not bashing, challenging them on their statement that a certain specialty works the hardest.


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