Urgent care salaries ?

[RustedFox]

Sorry if this has been answered, or if I seem like a total noob, but how much can one "realistically" pull down per year JUST working 40 hr/week urgent care ?

I have no idea.

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[pinipig523]

I think the going rate is approx 100-115/h if I'm not mistaken. But we should wait for others to chime in.

At that rate. You should break 220K at 40h/wk.

 

[gawogre]

I think the going rate is approx 100-115/h if I'm not mistaken. But we should wait for others to chime in.

At that rate. You should break 220K at 40h/wk.

Kaiser offers 275k for their clinical decision unit work, 40 hrs/week with full benefits...

 

[Arcan57]

It's going to vary widely depending on region. $100-115/hr seems high for urgent care work, especially since you'll be competing with NPs in a large number of states.

 

[tkim]

I did moonlighting in UC my last year in residency, and for two months after graduating before I moved for my first attending gig. The going rate at my NY gig was $90/hour. The going rate around here in my area in MA is $80-85/hr.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I did moonlighting in UC my last year in residency, and for two months after graduating before I moved for my first attending gig. The going rate at my NY gig was $90/hour. The going rate around here in my area in MA is $80-85/hr.

This is roughly the midwest rate as well.

 

[deleted6669]

I have worked at 2 urgent cares on the west coast. one paid 70/hr the other 80/hr regardless of type of board certification. we had fp, med-peds, and em docs working for that rate.

 

[RustedFox]

Very, verrry interesting.

Hmm...

 

[EctopicFetus]

Yeah in AZ its ~75/hr

 

[la gringa]

i did some UC work in NoVA while returning to work after an injury... $80/hr

Kaiser's CDU's aren't UC's, at least when I inquired about a position w/ them... they have separate UC's and send the sicker ppl to CDU's. it's their equivalent of an ED and you can obs pts.

 

[pinipig523]

I didn't know they paid so low.

 

[gutonc]

i did some UC work in NoVA while returning to work after an injury... $80/hr

Kaiser's CDU's aren't UC's, at least when I inquired about a position w/ them... they have separate UC's and send the sicker ppl to CDU's. it's their equivalent of an ED and you can obs pts.

I don't know how it is in all Kaisers but the one here has 3 levels, UC, the CDU and the ED.

The CDU is sort of a mix between a UC on steroids and a free-standing ED. It has obs beds with tele (although only18h since they're only open from 0600 - MN), is staffed mostly with EPs (with a few FPs and a lot of mid-level support) and get a lot of BS and a few really sick people (that they are mostly equipped to handle including intubation). But they have to transfer everything requiring admission to the Kaiser hospital across town.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I didn't know they paid so low.

Come on.. They dont care for anyone ill there. Level 2 and 3s. I respect them for their work but its not EM.

 

[pinipig523]

Come on.. They dont care for anyone ill there. Level 2 and 3s. I respect them for their work but its not EM.

True... but I thought that if you pound through 3 fast track patients, that's better than a single Level 5 patient.

In terms of reimbursement I mean.

 

[EctopicFetus]

True... but I thought that if you pound through 3 fast track patients, that's better than a single Level 5 patient.

In terms of reimbursement I mean.

From ACEP talk.. using 2008 numbers

RVUs.. Level 3 1.71
Level 4 3.17
Level 5 4.72
Critical Care 5.9.

3 Level 3s is 5.13.. If I saw one level 4 and one level 5 per hour that would be 7.89. You would have to see 4.6 patients per hour to make it even.

For those interested while the amount paid per RVU by cms is variable it is roughly $40 per RVU.

 

[la gringa]

man do i feel cheated... i saw up to 6 pph at the UC... not doing that anymore though or we'd have to talk productivity-based pay!

 

[deleted109597]

From my experience, EM docs that "retire" to UC often own the UC or are part owners. They only work because they have to, or because they want to make sure everyone else is working like them. You don't earn money working UC, you do it by getting the reimbursement. They are cash cows for a reason (ie, people have to have insurance or they pay up front, copays included).

 

[pinipig523]

From my experience, EM docs that "retire" to UC often own the UC or are part owners. They only work because they have to, or because they want to make sure everyone else is working like them. You don't earn money working UC, you do it by getting the reimbursement. They are cash cows for a reason (ie, people have to have insurance or they pay up front, copays included).

Question is, how do we go about starting one?

 

[pratik7]

Question is, how do we go about starting one?

being business savvy and having huge upfront capital.

 

[leorl]

I moonlight at a UC, so I don't know if there probably is a pay differential compared to their regular MD staff. But when I moonlight, it's nice - 150/hr weekdays and 180/hr weekends. Some days make you want to shoot yourself, but still it makes a nice addition to my pay and means I'll probably make my goal of shooting down a couple debts this year.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I moonlight at a UC, so I don't know if there probably is a pay differential compared to their regular MD staff. But when I moonlight, it's nice - 150/hr weekdays and 180/hr weekends. Some days make you want to shoot yourself, but still it makes a nice addition to my pay and means I'll probably make my goal of shooting down a couple debts this year.

The UCs I know that are successful see 5 pph or more. Keep in mind those seeing 6 pph or more that has to be without a PA.

Owning a UC is a money making prop. U charge for your x ray, your labs etc.

Drives me bonkers when they run blood tests on people and then send them to me for r/o appy etc. WTF... im gonna have to draw that blood again and honestly those guys do nothing with that info other than run up a bill.

 

[Arcan57]

You're probably not averaging a level 3 charge for a lot of the UC stuff. If you own the UC (or free-standing ED) you can collect the facility fees, but you have to really crank to make $$$ on just RVUs.

 

[la gringa]

From my experience, EM docs that "retire" to UC often own the UC or are part owners. They only work because they have to, or because they want to make sure everyone else is working like them. You don't earn money working UC, you do it by getting the reimbursement. They are cash cows for a reason (ie, people have to have insurance or they pay up front, copays included).

that was the situation where i was... owned by 2 EP's. one was older and supplied more capital, the other was younger and did more of the clinical work and was medical director.

they employed 1 other EP who was at the tail of her career and liked to take lengthy medical missions. the other main doc was IM trained, and an FP resident moonlighted. never did figure out how the IM gal did w/ the kiddos, but she had prior UC experience.

pay was terrible for the COL in the area... but so was pay at my EM gig compared to my new job in a less "desirable" city. factor in COL, and i got a nice raise, even though i went from 36 hrs/wk to 32...

 

[Hercules]

being business savvy and having huge upfront capital.

Yes to the business savvy, not so much on the capital.

This thread is one where I have a little knowledge. I finished EM residency in 2009 and took a job with a great small democratic group where I'm now a partner. I opened an UC in July 2011 along with 4 of my partners. I am the president and one of the two managing partners for the UC which means I put in ~1000 hrs into setting it up in the year prior to opening it, and now I handle the bulk of the non-clinical work for it. In terms of the capital, you don't really need much as long as you have a well laid out business plan that a bank will believe in. Healthcare is one of the fields that banks and the SBA are still very excited about being involved in.

The 70-100/hr is pretty consistent with everything I've seen for physician pay. As to the level 3 comment, the majority of your UC visits are actually level 4s (the criteria are different for office visits which is how UC is billed).

As pointed out above, the key to UC reimbursement is that you get to bill for everything you do along with the facility component (you have no idea how much your hospital is making off all the labs, XR, EKGs, etc that we do in the ED). I can tell you that based on national averages, you collect roughly as much per UC patient as you do per ED patient (though you have much more overhead in an UC).

All that said, I trained to be an EM physician and have no desire to leave the field or be a full-time UC physician. UC medicine just isn't as fun for me though it may be for others. I opened an UC to create an alternate revenue stream (that doesn't require me logging clinical hours) as well as develop some additional real estate equity. My plan is that once the UC is churning along and generating nice profits, I will be able to have more financial flexibility and make early retirement or part time work a possibility earlier than it would be for me otherwise.