| A bit on salaries:
Salaries are not generally a factor of where the physician went to school but rather a reflection of their specialty, geographic location & work ethic. All of this assumes the physician has good skills, both as a doctor and as a business person, and has a good bedside manner.
Surgical specialties tend to pay better than cognitive ones such as psychiatry. At present, the reimbursement system is heavily tilted toward the procedure based specialties (so non surgeons who do a lot of procedures, such as gastroenterologists, may compete well with surgeons income-wise), though this may diminish a bit over time.
Location is a big key to income. In general terms, the less sought after the location, the more the doctor will earn. The highest paying offers I got were in North Dakota, Montana, the U.P. of Michigan and along the Mexican border (a job offer in Marquette, Michigan offered 5 times the pay of a job in San Diego!). Interestingly, costs of living and of practice tend to be lower in these places as well, so net physician income may be much, much higher.
Lastly, hard work means more income. In most cases, it comes down to how many patients you see a day and how many days a week you work. Not exactly surprising.
Anyway, the range at present is about $90,000 for pediatricians and psychiatrists to $450,000 for invasive cardiologists.
Last edited by PSedrishMD; 07-18-2005 at 10:30 AM.
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