Psychiatry starting salaray

[Nadada]

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I am trying to learn how to evaluate job offers.
Given that many places pay strictly by wRVU (coded ~$35), what is the average salary for an entry position?
Thank you for reading.

 

[splik]

Only a subset of jobs in psychiatry are wRVU, they aren't used for payment in most settings. $35 per wRVU would be an insult. The median wRVU a few years ago for psychiatry was $67. This varies on geographical location and payer mix among other things. In wRVU models there isn't an "entry position" since you are measured in RVUs. That doesn't change as you progress. the main difference is for outpatient practices it takes a while to build a practice so it is standard to have a "salary guarantee" for at least the first year, and ideally two. The "average" would obviously depend on the setting, location, payer mix, and volume of work. But you would expect at least $275k typically.

ETA: please provide the compensation and wRVU target for us to assess whether it is reasonable

 

[AD04]

Maybe OP is a mid-level?

 

[Nadada]

One place offers is more OP and some ER support with one to two years of guaranteed salary but the compensation is wRVU based. Looks like primary people on gov assistance.

 

[J ROD]

Can vary a good deal. Academic is more low 200's. Outpatient typically pays less 230-250. Inpatient 250-275. Then bonus on top for production. Geographical differences are also at play. This is what I have heard and experienced in Southeast. Ideally, you want a guarantee for a year or two especially outpatient. And try not to get locked into a 5 yr contract. I say 3 yrs or less with first job.

 

[NickNaylor]

My contracted position at an academic inpatient unit for 5 days/week, extra pay for call and weekend work, and relatively small incentives for productivity is $226k. All salaried, no reliance on productivity. This is definitely on the low end but not surprising for academic work. The benefits package is also solid which is a pretty significant amount of money that isn't included in the salary.

 

[robellis]

Wrvu for a psychiatrist is 70 per wrvu not 35..if you’re looking at just salary it should be around 300k+ for community work..academics 250k or even less but great benefits

 

[clozareal]

For child psychiatry, I haven't seen anything lower than ~$300k outside of academics. The CMHC and county hospitals in the area are also paying this amount.

It might be worth it to get a third party contract review service look at your offers (more than just a lawyer, who will look to see for any legal issues rather than having expertise in how to maximize your compensation).

 

[hamstergang]

For child psychiatry, I haven't seen anything lower than ~$300k outside of academics. The CMHC and county hospitals in the area are also paying this amount.

I get less than that for outpatient child/adolescent at a non-academic, non-profit hospital. Either this is because I'm in NJ and salaries are very location dependent, or I need to more aggressively renegotiate after the hospital recoups some of its COVID losses over the next year.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

For child psychiatry, I haven't seen anything lower than ~$300k outside of academics. The CMHC and county hospitals in the area are also paying this amount.

It might be worth it to get a third party contract review service look at your offers (more than just a lawyer, who will look to see for any legal issues rather than having expertise in how to maximize your compensation).

The CMHC in my area in the Midwest are definitely NOT paying this amount. In fact, the CMHC seem to be much more interested in hiring NPs for half the cost of a psychiatrist and then having 1 psychiatrist “collaborate” with multiple NPs. I have also certainly seen multiple job offers less than 300k outside of academics for child psychiatry. However, I haven’t seen anything less than 260ish.

In regards to CMHCs, I’d definitely not go the CMHC route if you want to maximize outpatient income. They’re gonna be the first ones to throw on as many NPs as possible with very little benefit for the psychiatrists (unlike a physician owned practice where youre actually employing the NPs).

 

[nowaysanjose]

My contracted position at an academic inpatient unit for 5 days/week, extra pay for call and weekend work, and relatively small incentives for productivity is $226k. All salaried, no reliance on productivity. This is definitely on the low end but not surprising for academic work. The benefits package is also solid which is a pretty significant amount of money that isn't included in the salary.

What kind of census do you have if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[calvinhobbes]

What kind of census do you have if you don’t mind me asking?

Just here to say I love Max Evans 🙂

 

[NickNaylor]

What kind of census do you have if you don’t mind me asking?

Our unit caps out at 24 patients and we have 4 teaching teams. There's some ebb and flow in the size of the teams, but that works out to about 6 patients per team, assuming our unit is full. Very, very reasonable in my mind.

 

[FlowRate]

Just to put it out there, CO requires job postings to list the expected salary range of any position, so that could serve as one set of benchmark data.

 

[robellis]

Our unit caps out at 24 patients and we have 4 teaching teams. There's some ebb and flow in the size of the teams, but that works out to about 6 patients per team, assuming our unit is full. Very, very reasonable in my mind.

It’s funny because at your place 6 patients per attending is the norm yet the user @vistaril says he needs to see 30 per day to make ends meet..lol

 

[NickNaylor]

It’s funny because at your place 6 patients per attending is the norm yet the user @vistaril says he needs to see 30 per day to make ends meet..lol

It depends on your reimbursement setup and setting. Our unit loses millions of dollars each year. Revenue isn’t the main driver of why our unit remains open. Consequently, we don’t have to worry too much about “over staffing” the unit and it allows us to spend a lot of time with our patients and teach. Seeing 20-30 patients/day isn’t unusual in some of the local free-standing psychiatric hospitals around here.