Why do CRNAs earn so much money? Here's (apparently) why

[Urzuz]

Funny the double standard...cut every doctor's salary, but justify why CRNAs earn so much...especially when there are physicians (family med, pediatricians, etc) who would kill for the kind of salary that CRNAs earn.

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-nurse-anesthetists-earn-174330266.html

My favorite line from the whole article: "... Del Grosso completed more than nine years of study: four years getting a bachelor's degree in nursing from Northeastern University, three years of critical care training in the intensive care unit at Boston Medical Center..."

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[nycitygas]

Edit

 

[BuzzPhreed]

Critical care "training". What a ****ing joke.

 

[BuzzPhreed]

Salaries for CRNAs are dropping like a rock (at least where I live).

True. Supply vs. demand.

 

[Spinach Dip]

True. Supply vs. demand.

Huh?

How can increasing supply beyond the demand (mostly through opening new CRNA programs as fast as possible) lead to decreasing salaries? Do you mean there are market factors beyond "go to school make tons of money"?

 

[Mman]

why? Because that's what the reimbursement is. Medical reimbursement historically (and currently) slants heavily towards procedures with codes you can bill for. Things like office visits don't generate revenue. Because anesthesia is 100% procedure based, it reimburses well. That's why we (anesthesiologists) as well as they (CRNAs) and AAs get reimbursed well.

My only current complaint with anesthesia billing is the complete and total crapfest that is Medicare/Medicaid. Getting paid 15 cents on the dollar compared to commercial insurance is comical.

 

[Mman]

Huh?

How can increasing supply beyond the demand (mostly through opening new CRNA programs as fast as possible) lead to decreasing salaries? Do you mean there are market factors beyond "go to school make tons of money"?

Are you being sarcastic? Too many CRNAs means you can offer less money and still fill the job. If there were 50 million CRNAs in the country, you could pay them $10/hr and fill every position needed.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Are you being sarcastic? Too many CRNAs means you can offer less money and still fill the job. If there were 50 million CRNAs in the country, you could pay them $10/hr and fill every position needed.

Yes. It was sarcasm.

The same market forces are why jobs in Socal pay half as much as those in Topeka. I get it. Apparently others don't.

 

[freemontie]

I'm surprised he didn't count his science classes in high school as a "year".

 

[jwk]

Good grief, have you read some of the comments? "One of my best physicians was a nurse practitioner". And they wonder why so many physicians have an issue with nurses with doctorates being called doctor. "Oh no, the public is smart enough to know the difference". "Oh no, we would never let the patient think we're physicians". Yeah right.

 

[anbuitachi]

the article is very misleading, with that 3 yr ICU stuff. reminds me of politicians twisting things around to get more public support.
might as well get an anesthesiologist to write an article like this, someone with a phd, masters, and worked before becoming an anesthesiologist, so he can write 30 years of schooling before finishing training

 

[Consigliere]

Our CRNAs were hospital employees. We hired them, got rid of 2 (there were too many), and cut their salaries by $25K/yr. Guess how many left? Zero. Know why? There are a dozen more lined up for their jobs and they know this. Supply vs demand, yo.

 

[anbuitachi]

Our CRNAs were hospital employees. We hired them, got rid of 2 (there were too many), and cut their salaries by $25K/yr. Guess how many left? Zero. Know why? There are a dozen more lined up for their jobs and they know this. Supply vs demand, yo.

same with anesthesiologists probably?

 

[Consigliere]

same with anesthesiologists probably?

Definitely.

 

[caligas]

"he says a good nurse anesthetist develops a sort of sixth sense that allows them to immediately infer that something's not right with the patient simply from hearing a heart tone on a monitor"

actually dude, that's one of the 5 basic senses. I guess that wasnt covered in those 9 years of school.

 

[Planktonmd]

It's unfortunate that this dude thinks it's "sixth sense" that enables one to know that something is wrong with the patient!
He might as well have a crystal ball as one of his monitors!

 

[CrazyJake]

I'd like to see a crna school on every corner right beside Starbucks.

Just law lawyers then pharmacists crna salaries will (and are) dropping

 

[pgg]

"he says a good nurse anesthetist develops a sort of sixth sense that allows them to immediately infer that something's not right with the patient simply from hearing a heart tone on a monitor"

actually dude, that's one of the 5 basic senses. I guess that wasnt covered in those 9 years of school.

Hah, I don't know how I missed this post last week, but L O L ...