Peds Neuro PP

[nn2023]

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Hiya, I'm feeling nervous about my earning potential as a peds neuro fellow.

Current plan is to finish my fellowship then work at an AMC for a few years (thinking I'll make about 100-120K) then book it to PP.
So here's the Q - is peds neuropsych PP even possible given reimbursement schedules these days? What are people earning doing Peds Neuro PP these days? Are people only making it work by doing self-pay practices? If so, are there enough patients to stay full?

Yes, I know I shouldn't "do psych for the money" but wanting to earn a living as a FGLI student who HUSTLED to get where they are isn't a crime...

 

[AcronymAllergy]

First: there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money. Not justification necessary, IMO.

Second: There's a huge need pretty much everywhere I've lived/worked for peds neuro. That said, I have no idea what the reimbursement side looks like. If your plan is to focus solely on clinical, I imagine you'll need at least one psychometrist to bump up the number of patients you can evaluate (and to improve your professional quality of life). I suspect there would be a market to augment your practice's earnings with private pay evals that wouldn't be covered by insurance. Things like psychoed assessments. But you'd have to want to do those, of course. And the market for this will depend on where you're located, although many parents are more willing to pay out-of-pocket for their kids' needs than for their own

I'd wager a guess (without looking at the salary survey) that most neuropsychologists in PP are involved in forensic work in some capacity. Again, I have no idea what that looks like for peds, but getting a few years of experience under your belt first wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[Sanman]

You should always do jobs for money. No need to apologize over here. The peds PP folks that I know who do well usually keep a self-pay educational component to their practice.

 

[borne_before]

Most peds neuro in pp is moving the way of private pay only.

 

[PsyNeuro37]

I’m in the adult neuro world not peds, but you can probably expand the range on that AMC salary too. 110k-145k base with some sort of additional incentive structure is what I was seeing very recently right out of postdoc.

 

[psych.meout]

I’m in the adult neuro world not peds, but you can probably expand the range on that AMC salary too. 110k-145k base with some sort of additional incentive structure is what I was seeing very recently right out of postdoc.

Yeah, the base for my non-neuro AMC faculty position starting next year is in that range for an assistant prof. and has plenty of incentives for productivity and other activities.

 

[ClinicalABA]

I work in what could be described as a pediatric neuropsych setting, in that we do assessments of children and bill neuropsych codes when doing so. It's a private group practice assessment center(s) that are associated with a larger human service agency (ABA and school consultation provider).
The base salaries listed above are pretty spot on- starting in the 100K base range, with incentives available for 20-40K more (e.g., productivity bonuses), plus affiliated adjunct teaching opportunities. All licensure and CEUs (including conference attendance) are also paid for, and there are bonuses available for publishing.

There is definitely a HUGE need for pediatric evaluations- neuropsych or otherwise. My practice is limited to just autism evaluations on children und 30 months, and I still can't meet the demand. Expanding services to older children, other diagnostic questions, etc, and you quickly end of with YEARS LONG waitlists. There is certainly an opportunity for a purely private pay assessment practice, but that's not the population I want to work with. Really young children tend to have really young parents, and really young parents tend not to have a lot of money. As a result, I see almost exclusively medicaid clients, with and isolated private insurance here and there. Never see any private pay, because they can get in quicker at another place (there's also more of a chance that they are looking for a specific diagnosis and will be rather unhappy if they don't get it, and I've got no time or patience for that nonsense, but that's a whole other thread).

It is very difficult to support the psychologist salaries, overhead, etc. from just billing medicaid- at best it's a break even proposition. It's done more as a value added service and to support the ABA side of things, though we do not refer only to ourselves or otherwise require that new clients get treatment from us after a diagnosis. Psychologist perform some non-billed senior level supervision and clinical trainings of non-psych staff. All that said, I know what I make and what the agency is paid for my services and make a very concerted effort to cover my salary and benefits with billables each week, even if I'm not necessarily required to do so.