That's not necessarily true. Ophtahlmology is a business and as a business owner you want to hire in a new associate at the lowest salary the market will allow. In many desireable areas of the country, the supply much outweighs the demand. Thus, a practice owner has their pickings of new potentail associates. This equates into not having to offer a high starting salary/bonus structure. The starting salary of $120-150k/year for the first 2-3 years does not mean you own any of the practice or generated patients at the end of your initial "starting period". You have bought into nothing and have nothing. The practice owns those patients until you become partner. Becoming partner means a "buy in" price set by the other partners. This may be a huge sum $200-300k or more depending on the practice. Not to mention, your contract will likely have a retirement package writtten in for the senior partners, that is like a retirement bonus for them, that can equate into hundreds of thousands on top of the price they set to buy out their equity in the practice. This adds up to A LOT of cash in the end. These old guys are coming out like champs! They were not only making millions of dollars back in the golden days of cataracts, they now have set up sweetheart deals for themselves by underpaying new, young Ophthalmologists and then sticking it to them upon their departure into retirement. Many things to think about before jumping into a group practice. I think we as young Ophthalmologists should start fighting back by setting up practices of our own next to the old guys, and use our youth and inguinuity to drive the market in our favor. Sure, starting a new practice is costly for the first 4-5 years until you build the practice. But, after the intial start up period, you run the show with a likely higher income potential than you would ever have with a group practice as mentioned above.
