Is decent lifestyle possible any more?

[sirsam84]

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Howdy...wanted to ask a question in light of the new legislature handed down by our brilliant representatives. Is a decent lifestyle still possible with radiology (meaning enough time off to enjoy the good things in life...meaning nonmedicine stuff). I have heard reports from some out there in the real world that rads has become an exremely busy job, with little chance of doing 40-50 hrs a week. I am switching from ER to rads mostly because of difficulty with the night and weekend shifts coupled with rotating schedule, so lifestyle is quite important to me.

 

[tigershark]

One of the faculty at my school just signed a deal in private practice for 950k/year, 50 hours/week and 12 weeks vacation per year.

You tell me.

 

[eddieberetta]

The answer is a qualified no.

Most jobs involve some hospital coverage and hospital coverage is extremely busy. OTOH there are some jobs that involve only outpatient work, and it is these jobs that can have a great lifestyle. However, it is these jobs that will be the hardest hit by the legistation and it is unclear the impact the cuts will have on the viability of o/p imaging centers.

950K/year and 50 h per week do not mix. The exceptions are signing bonuses (good for only 1 yr) or perhaps a highly sought-after subspecialist whose salary is subsidized by others in the group. Generally, in p.p. you eat what you kill, and to kill 950k means eating a lot of scans.

 

[Fireboy]

So what is this new legislation?

 

[robf]

One of the faculty at my school just signed a deal in private practice for 950k/year, 50 hours/week and 12 weeks vacation per year.

You tell me.

You must go to the University of Leningrad. 950k rubles, yes?

 

[sirsam84]

I don't mean both sky high pay and decent hours....Is there any possibility of earning 200-300 while working 50 hrs or less a week, realistically? And is it a life of perpetual tiedown to the pager when out of the hospital, or can you actually do other things?

 

[sirsam84]

The bill is to slash Medicare reimbursement for between 20-70% depending on the study for outpatient imaging and will take effect in 2007...gotta love our Congress...

 

[KB_Xiii]

950 K?

What kind of radiologist is he? interventional? neuro?

 

[txguy]

"The Lawyer Who Could Save Radiology"

http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=imc&Pag=dis&ItemId=70190&wf=769&d=1

-tx

 

[trent05]

I can't comment about rads, but the lifestyle and pay you seek sounds a lot like path. I know lots of 300+, 40 hr, no weekends, no nights, no call pathologists. Of course you gotta like reading slides.

 

[cdql]

I thought pathology was more of a lifestyle field but only average pay?

 

[trent05]

I don't think path is an extremley high paying specialty, but the original poster said 200-300K range and 40-50 hours. The average pay for a private practice surgical pathologist is ~308K (according to a CAP survey) and the average work hours is 43hr/ week. It's very unlikely that you would make 950k as a pathologist regardless of hours worked, but I have actually heard of pathologists that are partner in a group and make that (in rural Texas). From what I hear radiology makes lots more than path, but call and work hours have been increasing in radiology.

 

[Neuronix]

One of the faculty at my school just signed a deal in private practice for 950k/year, 50 hours/week and 12 weeks vacation per year.

According to one of the associate profs, we lost an interventional radiologist a few years ago to private practice in south Jersey for 600k/year--same 50hours/week, 12weeks/year vacation. The attending's biggest concern after joining the practice was what to do with 12 weeks/year of vacation.

 

[sepsis]

A bone attending that I met during interviews told me that he made 600k in denver private practice before coming to academic practice to make 230.

He could have been lying to me, but I have no reason to believe that.

I have never made more than 30k/year in my life and I have no idea what I would do with that kind of a paycheck. Whatever I get paid, I just want the ability to pay the 2k in loans I have every month.

 

[-Goose-]

A bone attending that I met during interviews told me that he made 600k in denver private practice before coming to academic practice to make 230.

He could have been lying to me, but I have no reason to believe that.

I have never made more than 30k/year in my life and I have no idea what I would do with that kind of a paycheck. Whatever I get paid, I just want the ability to pay the 2k in loans I have every month.

sorry for being ignorant, but bone=ortho ?

 

[colbgw02]

sorry for being ignorant, but bone=ortho ?

bone = musculoskeletal. lots of CRs looking at bone, but also lots of MRIs looking at joints as well as arthrograms.

 

[banner]

Howdy...wanted to ask a question in light of the new legislature handed down by our brilliant representatives. Is a decent lifestyle still possible with radiology (meaning enough time off to enjoy the good things in life...meaning nonmedicine stuff). I have heard reports from some out there in the real world that rads has become an exremely busy job, with little chance of doing 40-50 hrs a week. I am switching from ER to rads mostly because of difficulty with the night and weekend shifts coupled with rotating schedule, so lifestyle is quite important to me.

Yes, it is possible.

However, it also depends what you define as a good lifestyle. If you think that a good job is showing up everyday 9AM-5PM, Monday -Friday and surfing the internet half the day, you will not find that in any successful radiology practice or anything to do with medicine for that matter. This is MEDICINE and not a union job.

To be a success at anything, you'll always have to work hard.

However, I think that the amount GPs and general surgeons have to work is unreasonable for the amount they're compensated. The ratio becomes a more reasonable as a radiologist. In terms of the recent cuts, radiologists still come out ahead of many others, who have also suffered reimbursement cuts (speak to any CT surgeon, optho, orthopod, Inteventional cardilogists)

In my opinion, you made a great choice leaving ER for RADs. FOrget about the money, the work is just more gratifying and stimulating in RADs. No more drug seekers, etc. Remember reading a CXR on a drug seeker takes 10 minutes. But in the ER, you have to deal with that crap for hours.

 

[SunnyS81]

Anyone have any idea of how big of an impact the new legislation will make? I'm not looking to get rich or anything but i wasn't sure what to make of its signifance......recieving 1/3 of the medicare cut seems like a pretty big chunk as could having a images reimbursed at 50%. The $600k+ incomes seem a bit overinflated unless they are really despirate for radiologists in that area....I assume more realistically around $300k-400k but after legislation.....$150-200k?

Its ironic that this happened almost at the exact same time as multiple people were telling me how strong the radiology lobby groups are....

 

[Columbia22]

Rads will be taking a massive paycut in the very near future...expect the field to decrease in desirability by a significant percentage

 

[macrocyte]

Yep. I keep hearing that with this new legislation the days of the high salary in private practice are soon to be over. Talking to a friend of mine who just got out into practice in radiology, radiologists are working longer hours to get the same pay as it is. Reimbursment is going down and the job market is starting to tighten up. Add the new legislation to the equation and the salary will inevitablely take a major cut. People keep saying that radiology is such a "great lifestyle", but I've hearde those private practice guys work very hard and are pressured to put out a high volume of reads.

 

[cdql]

I don't know if that's true but I guess it does sound very plausible! I think the fields that will continue to be profitable are those that allow for cosmetic procedures or those that can command pay via cash (e.g. not provided by insurance)

Otherwise, I feel that the salaries of all other fields of medicine are subject to changes to legislation or by insurance companies.

 

[peduncle]

In my opinion, you made a great choice leaving ER for RADs. FOrget about the money, the work is just more gratifying and stimulating in RADs. No more drug seekers, etc. Remember reading a CXR on a drug seeker takes 10 minutes. But in the ER, you have to deal with that crap for hours.

But then again.. in ER you are given a salary based on the amount of hours you work... in rads, is it more the amount of films you read or procedures you do?

 

[emtji]

i'm growing a little tired of the 1st and 2nd year med students crowing about radiology salaries dropping to 150K. Anyone with some...well...objectivity and experience willing wager as to what the drop in salaries will be? From what I read, the exhorbant salaries (>500K) will take a dive, but I can't see how private practice salaries would drop lower than current academic radiology salaries.

 

[banner]

i'm growing a little tired of the 1st and 2nd year med students crowing about radiology salaries dropping to 150K. Anyone with some...well...objectivity and experience willing wager as to what the drop in salaries will be? From what I read, the exhorbant salaries (>500K) will take a dive, but I can't see how private practice salaries would drop lower than current academic radiology salaries.

Nobody has any idea. How can one possibly calculate this?

Be careful of all the prognosticators on this site, they have very limited experience in medicine in general and even less understanding of medical economics. Even the experts can be completely wrong when it comes to these things. In the early 90's they all said that only primary care people would have jobs.

Radiology is a very dynamic field that is always changing. Nobody knows where it will be 10 years from now. This is true for most fields in medicine. The only certainty is that Peds and FP will always make next to nothing.

If you think that things are going to be static in you medical career, you're in for quite a suprise.

In terms of cosmetic procedures making $$ now, that's true but things can change...

 

[cdql]

In terms of cosmetic procedures making $$ now, that's true but things can change...

Really? I was thinking this was one of the things that wouldn't change. Insurance is never gonna pick up the tab for procedures like that and it seems like people are always willing to lay out the dough for something that makes them look better. (Hellooooo Hollywood!)

One can argue, of course, that even though those procedures are profitable, it isn't really medicine. (I'm just kidding please don't bite me!!)

 

[stephend7799]

In terms of cosmetic procedures making $$ now, that's true but things can change...

that will never change since the government cannot interfere...

 

[wannaberad]

Actually, it could change, it's just much harder.

To see the profitability of cosmetic procedures decrease, you would have to see many less people willing to pay large amounts of money for cosmetic procedures. This could occur in the case of a downturn that actually hits the top of the economic scale (likely, huh?) or a Democratic government hitting rich people with heavy taxes.

Neither of which are likely in the near future...but remember all the mansions in the Northeast that are now museums. Still, cosmetic derm seems likely to be a good choice for the foreseeable future.

 

[cdql]

Well, in that event, everyone would be suffering a drastic change in lifestyle. Not just dermatologists!

 

[ariwax]

I've been seeing all kinds of doom-and-gloom pronouncements about diagnostic rads, but does anyone have an informed opinion regarding the effect this legislation will have on reimbursement for private practice interventional procedures in the coming years?

 

[banner]

I've been seeing all kinds of doom-and-gloom pronouncements about diagnostic rads, but does anyone have an informed opinion regarding the effect this legislation will have on reimbursement for private practice interventional procedures in the coming years?

No. Nobody has this.

Every specialty has a doomsday scenario which never actually pans out, mostly because they are devised by the paranoid and uninformed. Every rotation I did in medical school from OB to CT surgery to Internal Medicine same thing. Don't do OB or you'll be sued everyday. DOn't do CT surgery 'cause the cardiologists steall all the business. Don't do Medicine because the specialist is king. ALL of it exagerated BS from people who think that medicine a should be static and should be practiced as they remember it when they completed their fellowships forever.

And yes, the government can control cosmetic procedures by taxing them as they have start to do in several states. Not that its not a good gig, but it's not a definite bet.

There is no definite bet in medicine. It changes too fast. You always have to reinvent yourself as a physician to keep up with trends.

Sure, radiology took a hit recently. But by itself it means nothing about the future of the field. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that today's rain is going to predict the weather 10 years from now. It could be good or bad. WHo knows?

FOr all of you who want job security, excellent benefits and a good "lifestyle" (meaning 9-5, weekends and holidays off), you won't find what you seek in medicine and be a success. Get yourself a nice fat government job and you'll have a better shot at that.

 

[Voxel]

You can still find decent jobs with not that much stress working 8-5 or even part time. You can work for the VA, Military, or academics. Also, if you are willing to work locums (temp work) you can get by very nicely and set your own schedule. In fact if there are enough practices in a certain heavily populated radius you can become the "cover vacation person" and do quite nicely for yourself. There are plenty of part-time/full time nonpartner employee private practice jobs without call and with defined work hours. In return for your services, you will be paid accordingly. You won't make private practice partner salary, but you will not be poor. Just because this is not the typical pathway, does not mean that it has not or cannot be done. Not everyone wants all the headaches that come along with being a partner in a private practice.

 

[Docmike2006]

You can still find decent jobs with not that much stress working 8-5 or even part time. You can work for the VA, Military, or academics. Also, if you are willing to work locums (temp work) you can get by very nicely and set your own schedule. In fact if there are enough practices in a certain heavily populated radius you can become the "cover vacation person" and do quite nicely for yourself. There are plenty of part-time/full time nonpartner employee private practice jobs without call and with defined work hours. In return for your services, you will be paid accordingly. You won't make private practice partner salary, but you will not be poor. Just because this is not the typical pathway, does not mean that it has not or cannot be done. Not everyone wants all the headaches that come along with being a partner in a private practice.

And may I just add that the headaches are increasing every day in radiology🙂

 

[shorrin]

And may I just add that the headaches are increasing every day in radiology🙂

they are increasing across the board