how much do rads make?

[Hawaiiandoc04]

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Hi, I will be starting med school in the fall and I was wondering how much the average radiologist makes per year. Also, is there really zero patient contact? And also, is it also true that radiologists have the best hours compared to other specialties? Thanks !

 

[UMU2004]

Seems like salaries have been discussed repeatedly. But I guess we can continue to beat the dead horse. Take your pick for your favorite website...


http://www.cejka.com/content.asp?intPageID=264&intBrowserRes=1024

http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm

http://www.physicianssearch.com/physician/salary1.html

http://www.physicianssearch.com/physician/salary2.html

http://www.uoworks.com/pdfs/charts/salary2000.pdf

 

[txrad]

If you are interested in high income, doing solo practice in rural areas (no managed care) is the way to go. You can do approximately 100 studies a day (no angio or interventional needed), you can expect to earn about $800k after billing costs. No vacation, of course. If you want to take vacation, a week off = $10 to 12k to hire locums.

Also, you are on call 24/7. If you don't want call, you can outsource call for $1000/wk for preliminary reads (CT/US etc).

I know a guy who made $1.2M (before costs for vacation/call etc) last year in the Midwest. He did angio, plus he did more like 130 studies/day (the maximum workload any rad might be able to handle).

 

[e coli]

rad salary right now is very appelaing. one thing that makes me uneasy is why should radiologists be paid so much? first you might argue it's the shortage. that's my feeling. howevere, what would happen after the shortage is no longer an issue? i think the current salary will go down in the future (don't ask me when). I looked at general surg and those guys got a pay cut after the government intervened. remember since surgeries are procedures and in this country, procedures are valued more than non-procedure medical consultation, why will radiology reimbursement stays the way it is now? is the fed government paying "too much" and is there a way to cut it down like what happened in surgery? i think so though i hope not.🙁

 

[Jmb3d]

I believe that rads get paid so much because of their level of knowledge needed to diagnose and treat patients. Think about it. Just about every doctor has to consult with a radiologist before proceding. MRs, CTs, PETs, and other scans go throught the radiologist before any exam requiring these test can procede. I believe this is why they get paid so much.


P.S. In my area (Dothan, AL) the rads get around $1.5 million per year because there is only about 13 of them in our area. They are all a part of a group called the Radiologist Associates of Dothan and each share the profits.

 

[Santiago]

Originally posted by Hawaiiandoc04
Hi, I will be starting med school in the fall and I was wondering how much the average radiologist makes per year. Also, is there really zero patient contact? And also, is it also true that radiologists have the best hours compared to other specialties? Thanks !

Check out the Salary Scan in the Aunt Minnie website.It has very comprehensive info incl the break up region as well as demographic wise.

 

[e coli]

i agree that radiologists have tremendous amount of knowledge. you can also endlessly argue that all the specialists have good fund of knowledge but they don't get reimbursed as much as radiologists. reimbursement is based on a number of factors. one of them is the length of training. remember, surgery is a minimum of five years, more like six years now. but they still got victimized in terms of reimbursement to some extent. radiologists' reimbursement would eventually get cut. i think it's a matter of time. probably not in the next two years. but nobody can see ten years from now. if you look back to 1997, radiology wasn't appealing to senior med students. if one has an insight back then, one would have done radiology and graduated in 2002, when the market was at its prime (if money is all you care about). the lesson is things could change dramatically in five short years!

 

[volvulus]

I just want to say that please think about why you really want to do Radiology. The money may not be there in ten years. Many forecasts into the future of medicine and it's specialties have been refuted. It's almost impossible to predict the future of any one specialty. With that said, Radiology is an awesome field. I can honestly say I would still do it if salaries were cut in half.

 

[maxheadroom]

I'll second that. If you look at trends in medical compensation, you'll see that fields tend to wax and wane on the remuneration side. It used to be that Gas didn't pay very well. Along comes an anesthesiologist shortage and you can't get someone to start out of residency for less than $300K per year with at least 8 weeks of vacation. Will the market sustain that? No one knows. Same with Rads. In the 80s and early to mid 90s, not many people wanted to read films anymore. Shortage comes along and salaries go up. Of course, IR has also had a hand in the $$ increase.

It's in your best interest to choose the field that you love the most and want to practice for a long time. Don't count on a two comma salary in your field of choice, because no one has a crystal ball that will accurately predict your salary or lifestyle.

 

[Jmb3d]

I third that! Radiology is an interesting and exciting field in itself.