If I work as a hospitalist doing 7 on/7 off, what are ways that I can maximize my income and earn more money?

[Sarcoid_Sorcerer]

I recently decided to be a hospitalist and ditch my previous plans of pursuing pulm/crit fellowship.

I want to move back home to Orange County, California because that’s where my entire life is.

I realize that the cost of living in Southern California is already expensive and the taxes are high, not to mention that as a hospitalist fresh out of residency, I anticipate I’ll probs be making a salary of like $250k before taxes.

My question is what things can a hospitalist who works 7 on/7 off do in order to earn more money in addition to the salary he already has?

I know that moonlighting on my off week is one option. What other options are there?

One thing I’m curious about is medical side-gigs. For instance, whenever I attend a lecture, I always see the speaker share their “disclosures”. I assume these are their side jobs. What kind of side jobs are there for hospitalists and how do I find them??

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[NewYorkDoctors]

I write vital sign reports (all templates) for a Remote BP monitoring company for remote blood pressure.

This leverages the RPM/CCM CPT codes 99453, 99454, 99457, 99458 which is then followed up by arranging follow up office visits 99212-5 or phone call visits 99441-99443.

Bottom line is a third company supplies a BP machine with 4G built into that that transmits data automatically to a central server. The third party company manages the BP website/platform.

I give all hypertensives that are resistant HTN or have CAD, CVA, and/or CKD this machine. They measure everyday. The company monitors all vitals for me on a website and notifies the patient if things are elevated and notifies me. I call the patient to review what's going on. I have my secretaries set up an in office visit if something requires a physical exam, labwork, or point of care U/S exam. I am able to keep most of my patient's BP below goal this way.

I generate $30,000 a month of revenue doing just the RPM CPT codes. yes that was correct $30,000 a MONTH just doing this.
i have about 150 patients on this. (this sure beats collecting HD patients!)
Then for those uncontrolled, I get some additional phone call or office revenue out of this (while actively doing something positive to get their BP under control)
I split about 1/3 of that with the company that supplies the machines and sets up the monitoring service.

This is probably not something you can "moonlight" for. But maybe it can inspire you to look into how to use RPM/CCM to your benefit.

 

[DrMetal]

I recently decided to be a hospitalist and ditch my previous plans of pursuing pulm/crit fellowship.

I want to move back home to Orange County, California because that’s where my entire life is.

I realize that the cost of living in Southern California is already expensive and the taxes are high, not to mention that as a hospitalist fresh out of residency, I anticipate I’ll probs be making a salary of like $250k before taxes.

My question is what things can a hospitalist who works 7 on/7 off do in order to earn more money in addition to the salary he already has?

I know that moonlighting on my off week is one option. What other options are there?

One thing I’m curious about is medical side-gigs. For instance, whenever I attend a lecture, I always see the speaker share their “disclosures”. I assume these are their side jobs. What kind of side jobs are there for hospitalists and how do I find them??

Quite simply, work extra shifts. If you work in a large enough system, there's should be plenty of opportunities for coverage.

And don't buy stupid things, like expensive cars. Don't take up 5-figure hobbies.

 

[wamcp]

I recently decided to be a hospitalist and ditch my previous plans of pursuing pulm/crit fellowship.

I want to move back home to Orange County, California because that’s where my entire life is.

I realize that the cost of living in Southern California is already expensive and the taxes are high, not to mention that as a hospitalist fresh out of residency, I anticipate I’ll probs be making a salary of like $250k before taxes.

My question is what things can a hospitalist who works 7 on/7 off do in order to earn more money in addition to the salary he already has?

I know that moonlighting on my off week is one option. What other options are there?

One thing I’m curious about is medical side-gigs. For instance, whenever I attend a lecture, I always see the speaker share their “disclosures”. I assume these are their side jobs. What kind of side jobs are there for hospitalists and how do I find them??

7 on 7 off for only 250K pretax? Find a better paying gig first

330K for 7 on 7 off, closed ICU, daytime hospitalist deal is the bar I would set. (150/hr on avg)

If fulltime nights, and you want 7 on 7 off, then you need to find 400K closed icu gig as the minimum (182/hr on avg)

Where I am, i’ve fully laddered in (5 yr of increases) and I am at $200/hr for my base night shifts.

I know of gigs out in the boondocks- still closed icu- offering 400k+ for 10 nights/mo but admit volume is typically very high

 

[collegestud2013]

I recently decided to be a hospitalist and ditch my previous plans of pursuing pulm/crit fellowship.

I want to move back home to Orange County, California because that’s where my entire life is.

I realize that the cost of living in Southern California is already expensive and the taxes are high, not to mention that as a hospitalist fresh out of residency, I anticipate I’ll probs be making a salary of like $250k before taxes.

My question is what things can a hospitalist who works 7 on/7 off do in order to earn more money in addition to the salary he already has?

I know that moonlighting on my off week is one option. What other options are there?

One thing I’m curious about is medical side-gigs. For instance, whenever I attend a lecture, I always see the speaker share their “disclosures”. I assume these are their side jobs. What kind of side jobs are there for hospitalists and how do I find them??

$250k per year (assuming no RVU or quality bonuses on top) is pretty low for hospitalist, even right out of residency. That's about what academics or VA pays if that's what you're going into, and at that salary your census should be very low. Recent data has median compensation for hospitalist at around $353k for 2022, though I suspect many are doing extra shifts to reach those numbers. As you mentioned in the other thread, if one of the main reasons you're doing hospitalist over doing pulm/crit is for financial reasons, you should be maximizing your income for the first few years post-residency. And in a high COL area and if you have a decent amount of loans, your living standard on $250k may only be slightly higher than in residency. It may not be easy to find a high-paying hospitalist job as a new grad in Southern California (unless you're willing to do full-time nocturnist), but would still set the bar at $300k+ for 7on/7off day shifts before any extra shifts.

Agreed with above that as a new grad, your easiest way to may extra money is by doing extra shifts. Investing in equities (for the long-term) should also be done is kind of a no-brainer but does involve some risk tolerance. Consulting type gigs are a possibility but their clients usually expect a good degree of clinical practice experience post-residency so may not easily get enough volume to significantly boost your income right away.

 

[CptNemo]

By far, doing extra shifts will be the easiest and most accessible way to make more money. This is a general maxim of medicine - you tend to get the best bang for your buck by doing more of your physician job.

I've seen some hospitalists do SNF or LTAC rounding too on weeks off too.

Other things like expert witness work or giving talks would be more accessible if you are a specialist and/or well known in your field (generally not too feasible when starting out as a hospitalist).

Southern California is a tough market, though I believe people are generally getting more than $250K to start outside of academia or VA (from what the residents tell me) - though I'm pretty sure they would start you with less desirable shifts. If you are open to it, you would probably get a better deal going to less popular parts of SoCal - think Imperial, Riverside, and Kern Counties rather than LA, SD, OC.

 

[DrMetal]

$250k per year (assuming no RVU or quality bonuses on top) is pretty low for hospitalist, even right out of residency.

7 on 7 off for only 250K pretax? Find a better paying gig first

No. $250K is baseline for SoCal (and in fact, you may be lucky to get that, I've seen them go as low as $225K). You're just not in a great negotiating position.

The OPs offer is a decent one, or at least commensurate with the market in SoCal. I'd be more concerned with the availability of extra shifts, or in the ability to moonlight elsewhere if so desired.

 

[sloh]

No. $250K is baseline for SoCal (and in fact, you may be lucky to get that, I've seen them go as low as $225K). You're just not in a great negotiating position.

The OPs offer is a decent one, or at least commensurate with the market in SoCal. I'd be more concerned with the availability of extra shifts, or in the ability to moonlight elsewhere if so desired.

Pretty sure 250k is what Kaiser offers in SoCal as well

 

[Sarcoid_Sorcerer]

For reference, I am still a PGY-2 resident and have no offer. I’m just thinking ahead

 

[CptNemo]

I'm a nephrologist, so I'm not fully versed with the hospitalist market, but I do work with residents a lot, and from what I heard, they were getting closer to $300k recently, but they may have been including bonuses and extra shifts (and a lot of spots in California seem to want night coverage and admitting shifts to start).

 

[FutureInternist]

Working at SNFs on week off is easy, low stress, low medical decision making.

Tele-health for recently DC’d pts from your hospital.

If you do extra shifts, make sure its the the beginning or end of your cycle, cos coming in for just 1 day to 16-18 new pts is not worth it… 1st 2 days SUCK, then middle 4 are easy, then last day sucks cos of all the handoffs that need to be done

 

[Splenda88]

Better to have an extra gig (1099) that can pay you $200-230/hr. As a hospitalist (or physician), your medical degree is a small business, so use it to your advantage.

When my contract is over this year, I plan to stay part time at my current job (8 days/month w/ benefits), which will be a salary of ~185k/yr since they are talking about giving a raise in a few months. If no raise is given, it will be ~180k/yr

I will attempt to get another part time position (no benefits) at another hospital that is (~45 minutes away from where I live) for ~$220/hrs working 10 days/month. That should get me ~320k/yr.

I should be able to make ~500k/yr working 18 days/month.

Will likely make cardiologist/GI/hemonc $$$ working as hospitalist. Hours will be around 45 hrs/wk on average since I can leave around 4-5 pm at both hospitals.

My point is that: USE THE SYSTEM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

 

[Nocturnist]

I recently decided to be a hospitalist and ditch my previous plans of pursuing pulm/crit fellowship.

I want to move back home to Orange County, California because that’s where my entire life is.

I realize that the cost of living in Southern California is already expensive and the taxes are high, not to mention that as a hospitalist fresh out of residency, I anticipate I’ll probs be making a salary of like $250k before taxes.

My question is what things can a hospitalist who works 7 on/7 off do in order to earn more money in addition to the salary he already has?

I know that moonlighting on my off week is one option. What other options are there?

One thing I’m curious about is medical side-gigs. For instance, whenever I attend a lecture, I always see the speaker share their “disclosures”. I assume these are their side jobs. What kind of side jobs are there for hospitalists and how do I find them??

I dont know a ton about medical side gigs, but very few are going to be able to beat just working extra shifts. Think about it: why would somebody hire YOU as a legal expert? Why would somebody pay YOU to speak at their conference? Why would somebody follow YOUR medical tiktok account? These side gigs require significant leg work, networking, experience, practice, time/financial investment. Why go through that when you already possess the tools to make a top 1 percentile hourly rate? It's kind of like a professional athlete trying to side hustle as a rapper...maybe you'll make it, but not likely.. but mostly, just why?

Get creative with positions within hospital medicine. For example, I make 10s of thousands a year remotely cross covering hospitals. I can be anywhere in the world, making money, as long as I have an internet connection. Or you could get paid to cover the results pool, getting paid hourly to followup on discharged patient's results from home.
Many hospitals will also pay you during busy times to come in and just bang out admissions and get paid per admit. You don't have to commit an entire 12 hours.

Lastly, consider working nights. The differential is staggering, both salary and shift differential. You're talking 250k for 10 nights, now you're moonlighting 4-5 more nights. All the sudden you're talking 400k A year easily. If not as a career, do it for at least a couple years and amass some dry powder.

 

[gutonc]

Y’all are missing the point.

Sure, you can make more money in the short term by working some extra shifts as a hospitalist. But this comes at the expense of short, medium and long term happiness.

The whole point of a non-medical side gig is not what it can do for you today, but what kind of passive income can it provide you in the next 5, 10 and 25 years.

You need to get outside of medicine completely for that stuff. So, sure, work an extra night or two this month and next, but put that money to work for you in a real estate or similar investment.

 

[Legend of Link]

I dont know a ton about medical side gigs, but very few are going to be able to beat just working extra shifts. Think about it: why would somebody hire YOU as a legal expert? Why would somebody pay YOU to speak at their conference? Why would somebody follow YOUR medical tiktok account? These side gigs require significant leg work, networking, experience, practice, time/financial investment. Why go through that when you already possess the tools to make a top 1 percentile hourly rate? It's kind of like a professional athlete trying to side hustle as a rapper...maybe you'll make it, but not likely.. but mostly, just why?

Get creative with positions within hospital medicine. For example, I make 10s of thousands a year remotely cross covering hospitals. I can be anywhere in the world, making money, as long as I have an internet connection. Or you could get paid to cover the results pool, getting paid hourly to followup on discharged patient's results from home.
Many hospitals will also pay you during busy times to come in and just bang out admissions and get paid per admit. You don't have to commit an entire 12 hours.

Lastly, consider working nights. The differential is staggering, both salary and shift differential. You're talking 250k for 10 nights, now you're moonlighting 4-5 more nights. All the sudden you're talking 400k A year easily. If not as a career, do it for at least a couple years and amass some dry powder.

Incoming Pgy 1 noob here. Would please elaborate/ explain a bit more on the ' remotely cross covering hospital's and 'get paid to cover the results pools'?

 

[Legend of Link]

Working at SNFs on week off is easy, low stress, low medical decision making.

Tele-health for recently DC’d pts from your hospital.

If you do extra shifts, make sure its the the beginning or end of your cycle, cos coming in for just 1 day to 16-18 new pts is not worth it… 1st 2 days SUCK, then middle 4 are easy, then last day sucks cos of all the handoffs that need to be done

How much do the SNF gigs pay? Are they easy to find?

 

[Legend of Link]

I write vital sign reports (all templates) for a Remote BP monitoring company for remote blood pressure.

This leverages the RPM/CCM CPT codes 99453, 99454, 99457, 99458 which is then followed up by arranging follow up office visits 99212-5 or phone call visits 99441-99443.

Bottom line is a third company supplies a BP machine with 4G built into that that transmits data automatically to a central server. The third party company manages the BP website/platform.

I give all hypertensives that are resistant HTN or have CAD, CVA, and/or CKD this machine. They measure everyday. The company monitors all vitals for me on a website and notifies the patient if things are elevated and notifies me. I call the patient to review what's going on. I have my secretaries set up an in office visit if something requires a physical exam, labwork, or point of care U/S exam. I am able to keep most of my patient's BP below goal this way.

I generate $30,000 a month of revenue doing just the RPM CPT codes. yes that was correct $30,000 a MONTH just doing this.
i have about 150 patients on this. (this sure beats collecting HD patients!)
Then for those uncontrolled, I get some additional phone call or office revenue out of this (while actively doing something positive to get their BP under control)
I split about 1/3 of that with the company that supplies the machines and sets up the monitoring service.

This is probably not something you can "moonlight" for. But maybe it can inspire you to look into how to use RPM/CCM to your benefit.

Where can I learn more about this or similar kind of work?

 

[collegestud2013]

Incoming Pgy 1 noob here. Would please elaborate/ explain a bit more on the ' remotely cross covering hospital's and 'get paid to cover the results pools'?

Basically tele-hospitalist work, usually for rural or critical access hospitals that can't find in-house staffing (often for night shifts or certain weekends/holidays). So often it ends up being nights or days where the hospital doesn't have coverage. Flexible since the work can be done from anywhere, but I would imagine medicolegal liability could be real high. You trying to manage patients sick enough to be hospitalized without ever fully examining them, and many of these hospitals that need telehospitalist coverage usually have minimal subspecialty support as well so you can't simply consult another service to help co-manage.

 

[FutureInternist]

How much do the SNF gigs pay? Are they easy to find?

Just have to talk to your local SNFs and see who their managing company is or who they contract with to provide physician services

I get paid $60 per pt… but they are medically stable so really its social issues etc