Are you looking to do inpatient, outpt, mix? I'd like to do a mix personally 70:30 or 60:40
The only thing that scares me about inpt is at like HealthSouth I know you have to do your own billing which seems crazy to me
Most of these physicians hire a biller. I'm not working with HealthSouth, but I am doing an inpatient job where I'm an independent contractor, so I have to do my own billing. I'll be hiring one. Most charge 6-8% of collections. Of the few solo physiatrists I've spoken with, all use a billing company.
The advantage of a setup like HealthSouth is you're an independent physician, so you are your own boss. You don't have to stay at the hospital if you've finished rounding and you have no admits/discharges pending. I knew an employed physician who occasionally left before 5:00 and took pager call if he was done early, but technically the hospital can require him to stay until 5pm. As an independent contractor, the hospital can only tell you what job to do--not how to do it. You can work with your affiliated partners and see as many or as few patients as you want. You can open up a clinic as well or not. I'm starting with 100% inpatient since I'm going to be a new attending and don't want to take on too much, but depending on how things work out I may start a consult service and/or clinic. Or I'll just wrap up early and spend more time with my family.
There are a lot of downsides to being an independent physician, but those are some of the perks. Salary and autonomy are the big bonuses. Lack of benefits and less stable/predictable income are some of the bigger drawbacks. Plus you don't get paid if you don't work (if you go on vacation, you don't get any money). On the other hand, when you cover for someone else, you get paid for all the extra work you do, so your income will double if you're each splitting the unit 50%. You can take as much or as little vacation as you want, as long as there's coverage.
Inpatient jobs are very plentiful, and I think much easier to get. Inpatient just isn't as popular these days--most of the growth/interest in PM&R has been med students who became interested in the outpatient/MSK side of things. So a lower proportion of new residency grads want to do inpatient. But these jobs are growing--new units are being built as the boomers age. There are a tone of inpatient jobs, and a lot of them can take a long time to fill.
AAPM&R has a good website for job searchers. Careermd is also good as more stuff gets included, but sometimes you have to sift through a lot of locums jobs. NEJM had a few good listings, but much lower quantity overall. USAjobs is where to look for VA jobs. Linda Farr is another good source--she's an independent (but professional) PM&R recruiter. Avoid other recruiters unless they're recruiters who work for the hospital (ie., people who won't farm out your information). (I think there may be one or two other PM&R-specific and very professional recruiters out there, but I don't remember their names). Never, ever, give out your personal e-mail to recruiters--give your residency e-mail out, because that'll expire when you finish residency so at least the spam will stop! Or even better is open a temporary e-mail account. There are some jobs out there where you might end up having to talk with one of those third party recruiters.
