private practice salaries

[icebreakers]

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How much can a psychiatrist make in private practice? is it possible to make good money without pushing drugs all the time?

what percentage of pscchiatrists are fee-for service? how well do they do financially? do they have more freedom and autonomy when it comes to deciding what type of care their patients recieve?

 

[sga430]

is it true that some psychiatrists make $120,000. i do like psychiatry but i would like to make atleast $200,000. is this possible even without being a child psychiatrist or being world renowned? what i would like to know is the salaries of other specialities in psych. how about specializing in pain??

i know i am gonna get those replies like "you should be into psychiatry for non financial reasons." i am in it for those reasons but i do like money. when i talk to older docs they say money is more important than they thought when they were younger. a lot of them have regrets of not going into derm or some other $$$$ field.

 

[Anasazi23]

Some of this information is in the FAQs...other info has been spoken of quite a bit in older threads. Try a search.

 

[Quijotemd]

Salary is a confusing topic in psychiatry because I get the impression it has much more variability than many other specialties. The average salaries reported seem to fall in the 150-175k range per year. On the other hand, I did a search for psych jobs on the APA web site. Most ads don't display salary but of those that did, I did not see any starting salary less than 150k, and I saw a number of starting salaries over 200, usually in the 200-225 range. And this is for 8-5 hours, little to no call. Even 150k working 8-5 is great, right? Seems hard to beat that for time worked.

And then I hear often that you can set up a private, cash-only practice. The going rate per hour in major cities in my state is 200. And I have been told over and over that it is easy to get plenty of cash-paying patients within a year. So do the math. 200 per hour x 8 hours = 1600. Let's say you give yourself 5 weeks of vacation per year, leaving 47 weeks. 47 weeks x 5 work days = 235. Now 235 x 1600 = 376,000. And then deduct overhead, malpractice, and taxes, and you're still left with a lot of money. My mentor has a private practice and operates this way. He told me he brought home a little over 300k last year, after taxes, after expeneses.

So perhaps psych salaries are significantly lower than these figures because those in practice work fewer hours, or maybe it's because they work for large groups that don't pay well. Either way, seems like money is good in psych.

 

[Quijotemd]

In light of this salary conversation, I would like to point out a couple of things. There are undoubtably many other specialties that make much more than psychiatry. Like radiology, surgical specialties, cardiology.

I used to work a part-time job with a group of radiologists. They all came in and sat and read and dictated all day. They couldn't wait to go home. I could see the dispassion in many of them.

Surgeons, let's face it, work their butts off. They might make a lot of money, but look at the cost.

Last month I did a cards rotation. The three attendings were always at the hospital. They also worked their butts off and the work was fairly routine. Lots of call.

Now I am doing a plastic surgery rotation, which by the way has a lot of tie-in to psychiatry. Many of the attendings tell me they don't enjoy their work. And this is plastics!

And then I think of my psych attendings. They were all chill, cool, and excited to be at work. I could see they were much more engaged with their patients than many other attendings I had seen in other departments. So regardless of pay, I think psychiatry is certainly one of the best, most interesting, and most unappreciated specialties out there. I hope the interest in students continues to increase each year.

 

[pschmom1]

Quijo, how funny and ironic that you speak of plastic surgery. It was all about 10min ago while I was in the shower, strange enough 😛 , did I realize that I have never heard of anyone mention a plastics rotation. I was actually going to ask about this, but you beat me to it, or answered it should I say. I thought it was strange that I've never heard of anyone doing this rotation. Do all med students do plastics? I'm not at all interested in pursueing surgery, however, I happen to think this would be a fun and interesting rotation. Sorry it's off the topic, but as far as the topic goes, I'm loving the salary estimates so far and I'll love it even more when I am able to get a peice of it 😀

 

[Solideliquid]

Quijo, how funny and ironic that you speak of plastic surgery. It was all about 10min ago while I was in the shower, strange enough 😛 , did I realize that I have never heard of anyone mention a plastics rotation. I was actually going to ask about this, but you beat me to it, or answered it should I say. I thought it was strange that I've never heard of anyone doing this rotation. Do all med students do plastics? I'm not at all interested in pursueing surgery, however, I happen to think this would be a fun and interesting rotation. Sorry it's off the topic, but as far as the topic goes, I'm loving the salary estimates so far and I'll love it even more when I am able to get a peice of it 😀

You would most likely do an elective (that is, fourth year) in plastics if you were interested.

 

[stookie]

What is the average salary for a psych in NYC??

 

[Quijotemd]

Yes, you are right in that plastics is a fourth year rotation. At my school, we have one month of required surgery in 4th year. Of the 15 choices, plastics sounded the least evil to me. I didn't enjoy the thought of another general surgery rotation. And at our school, plastics is a fairly easy rotation. On the other hand, it is also disturbing. I mean, these aren't people just getting face lifts and breast augmentation. These are people that have been in terrible accidents or fires. For example, on Monday morning, I will scrub in on a case where the surgeons will be reconstructing the FACE of a guy who put a 12 gauge shotgun beneath his chin and pulled the trigger in a suice attempt. I think this was an attempt and not a gesture. I must admit I am a little anxious about watching this. I hope I don't get acute stress DO as a result. And I was told the surgery should take about 8 hours! Jeez, I can't wait to be in Poety's completed position. Two months to go!

 

[sga430]

for per hour info, malpractice info, satisfaction stats and more go here:

http://phius.com/

this link has some of the best info i have seen.