How to be a GREEDY Internist

[VentJockey]

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Let's say for the sake of argument, that one has minimal or no family obligations upon graduation from residency, and they want to build up a pile of cash quickly. Perhaps, as may be in my case, so they can then go and work for free in some third world country for a year or two. Or maybe they have to pay off a ridiculous divorce settlement. Whatever it may be, suppose one decides that they will just work, and not live, for a 6 to 8 month period. Just enough time off to keep from becoming suicidal and not a moment more. Nights, weekends, Christmas, you (ex) wife's birthday, whatever: you're willing to work!

Also willing to travel to darn near anywhere to make the maximum cash.

What would such a greedy internist do Where are the pockets of opportunity for work so undesirable that they have to pay through the nose for it?

Go to some rural region and sign up and say, "Hey, I'll do 15 nights on, 2 nights off for six months....if you pay me well!" Or is it better to pick a region and sign up on staff at all the hospitals around and then pick up shifts they are desperate to fill as they will offer extra pay when they are really in a pinch? Or some combihnation of both?

Or what about finding an on-call position that is actually kinda chill, with lots of "down time" every night, but doing some computer based work while you're on call, thereby "double dipping".

What about adding income streams by supervising PAs and NPs?

How could someone who is super, super greedy and super willing to work twice as hard as they did their intern year really cash in on six months of intense, money-grubbing clinical activity?

 

[RosenthalFiber]

Let's say for the sake of argument, that one has minimal or no family obligations upon graduation from residency, and they want to build up a pile of cash quickly. Perhaps, as may be in my case, so they can then go and work for free in some third world country for a year or two. Or maybe they have to pay off a ridiculous divorce settlement. Whatever it may be, suppose one decides that they will just work, and not live, for a 6 to 8 month period. Just enough time off to keep from becoming suicidal and not a moment more. Nights, weekends, Christmas, you (ex) wife's birthday, whatever: you're willing to work!

Also willing to travel to darn near anywhere to make the maximum cash.

What would such a greedy internist do Where are the pockets of opportunity for work so undesirable that they have to pay through the nose for it?

Go to some rural region and sign up and say, "Hey, I'll do 15 nights on, 2 nights off for six months....if you pay me well!" Or is it better to pick a region and sign up on staff at all the hospitals around and then pick up shifts they are desperate to fill as they will offer extra pay when they are really in a pinch? Or some combihnation of both?

Or what about finding an on-call position that is actually kinda chill, with lots of "down time" every night, but doing some computer based work while you're on call, thereby "double dipping".

What about adding income streams by supervising PAs and NPs?

How could someone who is super, super greedy and super willing to work twice as hard as they did their intern year really cash in on six months of intense, money-grubbing clinical activity?

It's sad that working hard to ensure your family a good future is considered greedy by anyone...

 

[Trogghunter]

Go somewhere that you can build up a personal census of 50 people per shift, have students write your notes, have residents staff the students' notes, and come back around and write your signature. Assuming your billing dept will let the student work be billed.

>500k/yr

 

[nope80]

Go somewhere that you can build up a personal census of 50 people per shift, have students write your notes, have residents staff the students' notes, and come back around and write your signature. Assuming your billing dept will let the student work be billed.

>500k/yr

But how does ones pay get impacted by their number of admissions?

 

[Trogghunter]

More admissions ==> bigger census. assuming that youre part of a group that runs its department, and your group is good about getting reimbursed.

 

[dragonfly99]

I'm pretty sure it is considered fraud to bill for medical students' work/notes.
You can bill for residents' works as long as you add an addendum that you saw and examined the patient.
I think you can potentially make a lot as a Locums, just by going to some rural place and set yourself up for 3-6 months in some place. Midwest, South, West, any rural areas. I wonder about Alaska?

 

[VentJockey]

Yeah, I'd be willing to go on some contract to rural Alaska and work every day for a few months for the right pay. That kind of situation would be ideal. I could then take that pay and support myself for the rest of the year doing volunteer work, and it would be awesome. I haven't found any positions advertised like that though....

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Your best bet would be locum tenens in an undesirable area, like Alaska or North Dakota in the fall through spring season.

 

[timbuktu]

I'm pretty sure it is considered fraud to bill for medical students' work/notes.
You can bill for residents' works as long as you add an addendum that you saw and examined the patient.

are you sure? i know of a hospital where the med student note counts once it's been addended (sp?) by both the resident and attending. i would assume they're billing for those notes since the residents aren't writing separate notes.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I've seen some internists get a day job (hospitalist, PCP, etc) and then find nocturnist jobs where they don't have to do very much. They work their day job and then head to the nocturnist job, whereby they (usually) sleep through most of the night and wake up (relatively) refreshed to return to their day job. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I can't imagine this is sustainable in the long term, but if you were trying to make the maximum amount of money possible in 6 months it may be doable.

 

[VentJockey]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind sleeping in a call room at night *if* I only got called for medically important things and if the calls were typically infrequent enough to make that kind of dual work arrangement possible. I like your idea!