The nitty gritty...$

I believe the AAPA publishes earnings for 1st year PA's to be around $55-60,00/year. I'm sure it depends on your speciality, earlier training, part of the country, etc.

Annual tuition depends on the program you attend.

Theresa

 

60-120k is the general range.high end if you specialize, low end for primary care.

 

For 2 years of training, that's not a bad gig.

 

Primary Care is a very lucrative area for a PA to be in if you know how to market yourself. A PA can easily make 100K in family practice but it requires working your way up, showing your value, being willing to walk if you don't get your share of the loot, and most of all, being an excellent clinician. If your patients like you a lot, and if you develop a patient base that keeps you seeing an average of 30 ppd, then you can make 6 figs, or at least 85-90K. A PA averaging 30 ppd in FP is very reasonable, and generally will collect for their practice anywhere from 300-400K per year. After your overhead, there is plenty of room for profit for the PA. You just have to find the right doc who is willing to let you loose once you are comfortable, and who is willing to see your value. Unfortunately, there are many docs that use a PA and pay them the base rate, but expects the world from them. These docs keep a PA for about one year, at which time the PA finds a better job. Thus, the doc thinks that this is more profitable in the end. The docs who do the best with PA's understand their value, and understand that continuity of care for their patients is probably worth having to give up some of the loot. If any of you are med students or residents, please hear what I am saying. If you treat a PA right, give them room to grow, and be their colleague, they will stay with you forever. Your patients will be happier because they will have found a permanent provider in your PA, and not some PA who is new every year when they come in for a visit.
But the moral of my story here is that PA's in primary care can make what specialist PA's make for less hours of work. It just takes time.

Matt

 

I'm about to graduate medical school and I agree with PactoDoc. PA's are very valuable healthcare professionals to doctors. A doc in private practice can reap the rewards of having a PA by increasing pt load. Also, a doc has to pay a PA much less than if he/she were to hire another physician. It makes sense economically. I think a reason docs pay PA's the base rate is that there are many PA's comming out of school. This is true especially in the NE where many PA's are having a hard time finding jobs. It's win win situation for both docs and PA's.

 

Last I checked, PAs in the Northeast didn't have much trouble finding jobs. Starting salary isn't too bad, either -- $65-75K range.

 

Last time I checked four of my friends who graduated PA school are still looking for jobs with no offers yet. All are in NE and they tell me their classmates are having the same problem.