Private practice

[MissAmanda]

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I am wondering, what medical specialties are the best for private practice?

 

[J ROD]

Derm, Plastics

 

[TexasPhysician]

Psychiatry requires little start-up costs.
Most fields can set-up a private practice however.

 

[Guile]

I am wondering, what medical specialties are the best for private practice?

This is a pretty difficult question to answer since every specialty is conducive to private practice. The vast majority of the care in this country is delivered in a private practice setting.

In terms of start-up costs and overhead, I think anesthesia has pretty low overhead. No real need for an office.

 

[MissAmanda]

This is a pretty difficult question to answer since every specialty is conducive to private practice. The vast majority of the care in this country is delivered in a private practice setting.

In terms of start-up costs and overhead, I think anesthesia has pretty low overhead. No real need for an office.

I know what you mean, but I know that some fields have such large overhead costs, that it is not worthwhile, and sometimes a huge risk to go into private practice. Not sure if family medicine is one of those fields, but I hear a lot of stories of family med doctors in private practice going out of business.

It seems that surgical fields would have a lot of overhead costs. What about radiology?

So far it seems like derm and psych are great for private practice. Would you say that these two are two of the best suited for private practice?

 

[Guile]

There is no specialty where it is "not worthwhile" to go into private practice. In every specialty I can think of (except perhaps nuclear medicine) private practice will be more profitable than academics (obviously a generalization; there are always exceptions). Even family medicine which you mention offers a large income potential if the practitioner is smart about setting up the practice. Many that I have seen have labs for basic tests and even an x-ray machine so their billing potential is much vaster than just the office visit CPT code.

I don't know too much about the overhead of surgical fields. It seems like it wouldn't be too high if you operate at a hospital. You would only need the office overhead. If you own your own surgery center, then overhead is not something you think about. You'll make more that way than you would operating elsewhere.

I think you should just forget about the feasibility of working in private practice. Each specialty can work in private practice. Pick something you love doing first.

 

[DrJosephKim]

Depends on your goals: money or work/life flexibility?

Primary care can be a great option because you can have the option to work part-time. If you're in the right type of practice, you could generate over $100k each year and have a lot of time for family.

 

[Slack3r]

Since healthcare reform is pushing for more doctors in ACOs, I'm thinking no specialty?