Generally speaking, partners in a successful practice can earn additional income from revenue sources other than their individual charges and collections. Some of these may include profits from the employment of mid-levels or salaried physicians, ancillary services (lab, x-ray, etc.), returns on investments in real estate, performance bonuses from insurance carriers, etc. It's not all blue skies, however. Partnership also means that you share in the risk if the practice doesn't do well. Unlike salaried employees, partners don't earn anything until all of the other practice expenses have been covered. Rewards come with risks, as in any other business.
Good post, and it segues into the general business world. There's one clarification to make, and you may have even learned this in high school, about the term "partner". There are 3 types of businesses - the sole proprietorship (one person), the partnership, and the corporation. The 'partner' in the use here means a voting member (ie, an owner with votes corresponding to the amount of ownership) of the board of directors of the corporation, versus that of the "partnership" model. For the business decisions, the corporation is who foots the blame and takes the risk. What that means is, if the group gets financially in debt, creditors cannot go after individual assets of the group partners. In the sole proprietorship or partnership, financial risk extends to the individuals (if someone sues - not medical malpractice - the sole prop. or partnership, and wins, they can go after the individual resources of the people). In the corporation, your risk only extends to what you invest - so, if your group has no buy-in, you have no risk. If you buy the x-ray machine, but default, and the entity that sold it to your group sues for payment, if you are part of the corporation, you can drive up in your M5, wearing your Rolex and Armani suit, as the corporation is dismantled, and no one can take that from you.
More frequently in recent times, I've been talking about the 'business of medicine', and that, in general, doctors are NOT good businessmen (compounded by the notion that a seeming number of docs have that, "Hey, I'm a doc, so I'm a good/great _____" - fill in accountant, lawyer, computer repairer, plumber, investment consultant, electrician, buying agent, equestrian/horse buyer, sailor, auto repairer, whatever). The best people in the 'business of medicine' that I've seen so far (as a group - there's always outliers that do well in specific specialties) are the cardiologists. It helps to have an influx of cash and public opinion on your side, and most patients have had at least a cursory 'wallet biopsy' - either by their "free" workup in the ED, or their PMD working them up to refer to cards. This conserves resources, as now it can be "you get a stress test, you get a cath, and you get a cardiac MRI" (to 3 patients in a row).
As a practicing partner, you get paid by the group, but then, you ALSO get your percentage share (called your "bonus", but is actually a once-yearly dividend). What is incredible regarding the overhead and costs is when the bonus is the same as, or exceeds, the base pay. Simply by knowing the % share you have, and the amount of your bonus, you can extrapolate how much profit was in the group after expenses - and this can be prodigious.
