Pay during residency

[docforsure]

is it tax exempt. Since you kinda have to live at your work site?

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[docelh]

is it tax exempt. Since you kinda have to live at your work site?

Your resident salary is paid for by the taxpayer. It is taxed.

Just like the President and the 535 bozos who work on Capitol Hill.

 

[Bernoull]

Your resident salary is paid for by the taxpayer. It is taxed.

Just like the President and the 535 bozos who work on Capitol Hill.

huh... the gov't pays residents???

 

[docelh]

Resident salaries are financed out of the Medicare/Medicaid budget.

Socialized medicine? NO SUCH THING.

 

[docforsure]

I see. My salary when I used to work as an RA in a freshmen dorm was not taxed and the reason given was that I had to live where I worked...I was wondering if anything similar applied to residency.

So residency salaries are financed by medicare regardless of what institution you're at?

 

[Bernoull]

Resident salaries are financed out of the Medicare/Medicaid budget.

Socialized medicine? NO SUCH THING.

interesting, I had no clue, I though Hospitals paid them... Do u know why the gov't pays for physician training across the board?

 

[docelh]

Unless you've been under a rock the last 2 to 60 years, the government has decided to do whatever it wants whenever it wants in just about any endeavor, field, or industry. Anything in the "public interest" however vaguely defined qualifies.

I really don't know the reason. I guess it's for the same reason they fully finance MD-PhD programs: because they felt like it.

Hospitals paid them

Your paycheck will be from the hospital, who is just the middle-man

 

[psipsina]

interesting, I had no clue, I though Hospitals paid them... Do u know why the gov't pays for physician training across the board?

Completely heresay but a resident once told me that a hospital gets 100k/resident via medicare funding. They pay the salary & benefits out of this plus educational costs & they get free labor.

 

[Bernoull]

Completely heresay but a resident once told me that a hospital gets 100k/resident via medicare funding. They pay the salary & benefits out of this plus educational costs & they get free labor.

I see, but do you think it's out of national interest why the gov't foots the bill.

I'm thinking something along the lines of: it's expensive to train residents and they are free to work elsewhere post-residency, so the gov't foots the bill to incentivize hospitals to train residents and ensure a adequate physician pool...

 

[Catalystik]

is it tax exempt. Since you kinda have to live at your work site?

Some residencies provide you with free food in the cafeteria, and you don't have to pay tax on this benefit. Small consolation, I know, but better than nothing.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Completely heresay but a resident once told me that a hospital gets 100k/resident via medicare funding. They pay the salary & benefits out of this plus educational costs & they get free labor.

The exact number varies somewhat, but 100K is in the ballpark. Some people think institutions make money on their residents, others think they lose money. I'm sure it depends on how the programs are run.

I would be the first to say that resident salaries are rather sad, but if you consider the whole package (salary + malpractice insurance + health insurance + life insurance + disability + other miscellaneous fringe benefits) it doesn't seem so dreadful.

 

[justinbaily]

I was actually asked about this in an interview when the conversation turned to the future of medicine. Luckily I knew that medicare paid for the spots. The government pays teaching hospitals for each residency spot in order to offer an incentive for the hospitals to accept medicare and medicaid patients. That's what I read anyway.

 

[Law2Doc]

The exact number varies somewhat, but 100K is in the ballpark. Some people think institutions make money on their residents, others think they lose money. I'm sure it depends on how the programs are run.

I would be the first to say that resident salaries are rather sad, but if you consider the whole package (salary + malpractice insurance + health insurance + life insurance + disability + other miscellaneous fringe benefits) it doesn't seem so dreadful.

Yeah the $100k figure is definitely in the ballpark. The hospitals are given the money and they in turn offer residents the salary. Salaries vary, largely based on cost of living (so eg in Manhattan your residency salary will often be higher than at a hospital in a more rural region), but tend to be in the $38k-$50k range as a first year (intern). The residents get salary, they get training, they get insurance, they get benefits, and a certain amount of free food. There are also overhead expenses -- those call rooms don't clean themselves, someone has to fix the phones and computers in the resident lounges, etc.

Even with all these expenses, it's hard to imagine that the 80 hours/week "free" labor that the residents provide don't make this a very good deal for the hospital. Clearly the labor is not lucrative enough that hospitals would self fund unfunded spots to get more residents. So the $100k is apparently needed to sweeten the deal.

But to answer the initial question. Heck no it's not tax exempt. No salary is. Ever. The president of the US pays taxes. The director of a tax exempt charity still pays taxes on his salary. You are going to get your $45k, minus withholding, plus a handful of benefits and periodic free meals, and you'll have to make do. Just like everybody else.

 

[akinetopsia]

You can go on websites for different residency programs and compensation is usually covered by the house staff handbooks - and like L2D said, it's going to vary on geographic location/cost of living. You may get paid $42,000ish a year as a PGY-1 somewhere in the midwest, and $49,000ish a year as a PGY-1 on one of the coasts in a more urban setting. Additionally, payment usually does not vary by specialty, i.e. an internal medicine resident makes the same as an anesthesia resident (of the same year, like PGY-2, etc).

It's income. You won't make enough to itemize, so you'll most likely be using the 1040EZ form for your taxes while you're a resident, unless by some luck you have significant earnings from other holdings or interest from investments, but I would say that's probably the rare exception and not the rule.

 

[thesauce]

There are other sources for paying residents such as the military and the hospitals themselves. Medicare does pay for the lion's share however, and yes, it is taxed.

 

[J ROD]

is it tax exempt. Since you kinda have to live at your work site?

 

[kami333]

I see. My salary when I used to work as an RA in a freshmen dorm was not taxed and the reason given was that I had to live where I worked...I was wondering if anything similar applied to residency.

So residency salaries are financed by medicare regardless of what institution you're at?

???

That's the first time I've heard of that one. I know they are FICA exempt, but I thought federal was still taken out (at least that was my experience).