reporter working on private equity story

[Mman]

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Again, your anecdote about one Mednax employee or practice does not negate the totality of how the average job was at TeamHealth/Envision/Sheridan/Mednax/American Anesthesiology when they were publicly traded. There were/are occasionally decent jobs everywhere. Overall though, working for an AMC regardless of whether it was public (and inevitably on its way to a being taken private by a PE firm) or actually private is still a raw deal compared to most other jobs.

I don't know what kind of angle you're coming at this issue with in regard to your repeated attempts to shoehorn public AMCs into the class of "benevolent publicly traded companies with responsible, fair, employee-loving boards and C-suites who won't F over a new grad or non-partner" .....but it's bizarre and does not gel with the reality which is that all the companies listed above had their anesthesia divisions or stocks taken private in deals that significantly benefited their largest PE or activist investors.

I have no angle. I work in a pure private practice and I enjoy those jobs being mostly crappy and letting us poach better candidates than we otherwise could get. Just sharing my take home from the knowledge people have shared with me from working in those places in addition to my understanding of economics and incentives.

You seem to take it a bit personally, though, which I find some combination of odd and amusing.

 

[vector2]

I have no angle. I work in a pure private practice and I enjoy those jobs being mostly crappy and letting us poach better candidates than we otherwise could get. Just sharing my take home from the knowledge people have shared with me from working in those places in addition to my understanding of economics and incentives.

You seem to take it a bit personally, though, which I find some combination of odd and amusing.

I've essentially just presented the facts about how publicly traded AMCs and their largest stakeholders have operated in actuality.... vs whatever theoretical, idealized version about economic incentives and the free market you think should or could or would exist with a publicly traded AMC... but actually don't. What I've presented about the danger of PE/activist investor stakes in publicly traded AMCs and their relative equivalence/revolving door with private AMCs/PE is so nakedly obvious that major publicly traded AMCs don't even exist anymore, but I guess if you think that sounds personal then uh ok

 

[sbmed100]

I used to work for a small private practice...there was no maternity (less than 50 employees), no paternity, you started at 40% less than what new grads get paid at an AMC starting out, you had 4 weeks vacation. You wanted to go to a conference? It had to be during a vacation week. There was no book or computer fund. Not only was there no 401k matching, you were unable to contribute to a 401k your first year. You did the difficult cases, you worked with the difficult surgeons. The older guys manipulated the schedule. You sucked it up because you had some promise of "partnership" after a number of years but this was not written anywhere.

A job like this requires greater risk tolerance than joining an AMC. These companies in their current form may or may not have short term horizons, but then again so do many, many new grads. They don't want to be lifers. They want flexibility and immediacy.

 

[IMGASMD]

I used to work for a small private practice...there was no maternity (less than 50 employees), no paternity, you started at 40% less than what new grads get paid at an AMC starting out, you had 4 weeks vacation. You wanted to go to a conference? It had to be during a vacation week. There was no book or computer fund. Not only was there no 401k matching, you were unable to contribute to a 401k your first year. You did the difficult cases, you worked with the difficult surgeons. The older guys manipulated the schedule. You sucked it up because you had some promise of "partnership" after a number of years but this was not written anywhere.

A job like this requires greater risk tolerance than joining an AMC. These companies in their current form may or may not have short term horizons, but then again so do many, many new grads. They don't want to be lifers. They want flexibility and immediacy.

Different strokes for different peeps.
The key is to find an equitable group. If you see how some of these AMCs contracts are written, they’re no better than some of the pp groups out there.....

 

[kidthor]

I used to work for a small private practice...there was no maternity (less than 50 employees), no paternity, you started at 40% less than what new grads get paid at an AMC starting out, you had 4 weeks vacation. You wanted to go to a conference? It had to be during a vacation week. There was no book or computer fund. Not only was there no 401k matching, you were unable to contribute to a 401k your first year. You did the difficult cases, you worked with the difficult surgeons. The older guys manipulated the schedule. You sucked it up because you had some promise of "partnership" after a number of years but this was not written anywhere.

A job like this requires greater risk tolerance than joining an AMC. These companies in their current form may or may not have short term horizons, but then again so do many, many new grads. They don't want to be lifers. They want flexibility and immediacy.

This is also know as the "exploitation model" of anesthesia practice groups. I also think this is part is why there are small groups of ultra lazy rich older anesthesiologists who pretend to manage CRNAs (but couldn't ever do a case themselves), and a much bigger group of ultra eager "yes sir" anesthesiologists who are skilled and ready to be taken advantage of (by surgeons, the hospital, and their anesthesia overlords).

If they hadn't set up this exploitation model then perhaps we'd have a less ****laden profession right now.

 

[deleted87051]

I used to work for a small private practice...there was no maternity (less than 50 employees), no paternity, you started at 40% less than what new grads get paid at an AMC starting out, you had 4 weeks vacation. You wanted to go to a conference? It had to be during a vacation week. There was no book or computer fund. Not only was there no 401k matching, you were unable to contribute to a 401k your first year. You did the difficult cases, you worked with the difficult surgeons. The older guys manipulated the schedule. You sucked it up because you had some promise of "partnership" after a number of years but this was not written anywhere.

A job like this requires greater risk tolerance than joining an AMC. These companies in their current form may or may not have short term horizons, but then again so do many, many new grads. They don't want to be lifers. They want flexibility and immediacy.

Why did you work there?

 

[D P356]

Different strokes for different peeps.
The key is to find an equitable group. If you see how some of these AMCs contracts are written, they’re no better than some of the pp groups out there.....

If considering a job, it’s a good idea to ask to speak with multiple people who have recently (1-3 years) left the group. Take what you hear with a grain of salt, but if you hear the same thing consistently, that should be an indication. If the group won’t give out that info, don’t waste your time.

 

[IMGASMD]

If considering a job, it’s a good idea to ask to speak with multiple people who have recently (1-3 years) left the group. Take what you hear with a grain of salt, but if you hear the same thing consistently, that should be an indication. If the group won’t give out that info, don’t waste your time.

Thank you. That’s a great advice. I asked for the most junior guys to talk to. Usually they’re too afraid anyway.
Been to a few interviews, basically sat me in an office and had different people come in to talk to me..... little too fishy for my taste.

 

[D P356]

Thank you. That’s a great advice. I asked for the most junior guys to talk to. Usually they’re too afraid anyway.
Been to a few interviews, basically sat me in an office and had different people come in to talk to me..... little too fishy for my taste.

For sure. There will always be some disgruntled folks. People in a group will give you a sales pitch, people who are gone will give you the truth (or at least their version of it).
It’s work, you’re trading your free time to be there to make money. No job will be perfect, there will be BS to deal with. Gathering info on a group is just as important as the salary they pay you. You’re uprooting your life/family to join them.

 

[deleted87051]

How Rich Investors, Not Doctors, Profit From Marking Up ER Bills

TeamHealth, a medical staffing firm owned by private-equity giant Blackstone, charges multiples more than the cost of ER care. All the money left over after covering costs goes to the company, not the doctors who treated the patients.

www.propublica.org

 

[IMGASMD]

This thread just came back up on my un-read list. Wonder what happened to the OP and the piece he’s working on.

 

[deleted87051]

Even private equity is having staffing issues.

Apollo is offering some associates retention bonuses of up to $200,000 to stay on until 2022 after a year of intense hours and rapid-fire deals

As Apollo grapples with associate burnout, the investment giant is offering six-figure "retention" bonuses to its junior workforce.

www.businessinsider.in

 

[IMGASMD]

Even private equity is having staffing issues.

Apollo is offering some associates retention bonuses of up to $200,000 to stay on until 2022 after a year of intense hours and rapid-fire deals

As Apollo grapples with associate burnout, the investment giant is offering six-figure "retention" bonuses to its junior workforce.

www.businessinsider.in

It’s news like these that makes me totally confused….. are we in the workers market or are we not? Why is the unemployment is less than 5% and we’re worrying about inflation. Why is Wal-Mart offering $18/hr but no one is applying. I thought everyone has a price…. I guess I am just too cheap.

 

[GassYous]

It’s news like these that makes me totally confused….. are we in the workers market or are we not? Why is the unemployment is less than 5% and we’re worrying about inflation. Why is Wal-Mart offering $18/hr but no one is applying. I thought everyone has a price…. I guess I am just too cheap.

Yeah I don't get it. Seems like all my neighbors just hang out at home and just yell nonsense at each other all day. But restaurants are closing on random days because apparently no one is available to work?