What are the advatages of being a partner vs an associate in private practice?
Are there any resources on the web that discussed these issues?
What are the advantages and disadvatages of the different private practice models (fee-for-service, etc....)?
What is the best way to find out the financial stability of the group?
There was a recent thread that covered many of these questions.
http://gasforums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=490306
There are good partnerships out there that will treat you honestly and pay you fairly where all the partners carry their fair share and you don't end up supporting some older partner who does very little work but gets the lion's share of the money.
The best situation is where you do your own cases and get to bill for them if you have to join a partnership you are very likely propping up someone else salary. You are getting paid less for doing more or the same amount of work as someone else for the empty promise of "making partner and finally getting paid "fairly and equally"
Unfortunately there are many bad partnerships out there. Places that will pay you little work you hard for three or more years without offering partnership then fire you and find a new graduate. Places where even when you make partner you find out there are two levels of partners and you are only eligible to do the crappy cases and get paid less.
You need to learn as much as you can about the group that you are joining, You need to go into that job knowing whether you will be offered partnership or be cast off like the last new grad they hired who worked for very little for three years and then got the boot.
AMC's are as bad or worse as the bad partnerships groups because if you choose to work for an AMC you will never get paid fairly. The AMC owner is going to take the lion's share of the money and feed you the table scraps. AMC owners are smooth talking lairs who job is to con you into working for far less than you could be paid anywhere else. They will pretend to be a partnership group, but you will always be a poorly paid employee of the AMC owner never an equal partner.
The other common AMC payment scam is the Bonus scam. AMC will promise that if you work hard, do more cases, take more call, your productivity will be rewarded with a big bonus that will offset the meager salary they pay. The AMC owner's have dreamed up hundreds of excuses for why they can't pay you the bonus this time but of course if you keep working hard next year you will get that big bonus. Just like a malignant group if you complain or confront the AMC owner about their lies you will get the boot and a bad recommendation to make finding a new job difficult.
So do your self and your career a favor don't work for crooks, whether they are AMC owners or malignant groups.