PA anesthesia pay vs internist

[wiiturtledove]

How much starting pay does a PA say in anesthesia make compared to an internal med doctor in your area? I am curious as to what the difference in pay is. I think ER docs in my city make about $200k per year. Not sure what a ER PA would make. But I like anesthesia so I am interested in that (used to be a tech in the hospital and I always got along great with the anesthesiologists...friendly bunch versus the cardiologists).

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[BruceBanner]

I'm not the authority on this but from my research it seems PAs don't really provide anesthesia services unless they have also completed the AA degree and are licensed as such. There may be some exceptions by state, but I think this comes down to billing and legal clearance.

As far as pay, AAs can make as much as a GP; but I think it's pretty rare they come close to 200k/year. Again, I'm not the expert here but I used to be really into the AA thing and I looked into all this.

Emory University has a PA-to-AA bridge program which is like 1.5 years, but they are the only one. If you are really set on doing anesthesia ONLY then I would just go to AA school. If you want to do other medicine and maybe pursue the AA thing later then PA is a better plan.

 

[jwk]

It depends on 1) supply and demand, which is frequently determined by 2) location, with a LOT of variation depending on your personal work schedule. Newly minted AA's generally are starting in the low $100's. Someone who is flexible, working some evenings, nights, call shifts, weekends, etc., can easily add 40% or more to that figure. As with CRNA's, the higher you go on the compensation scale, the fewer you will find at that number. Lots of people in the low-mid 100's, not that unusual to hit $200k IF you're willing to work for it.