compensation after fellowship for retina

[enghelabi]

I am a retina fellow looking at practices for two years out and I know a lot can change between now and then. It appears, however, that a number of fellows are getting job offers during their first year, and then have a job waiting when they finish.

With that in mind, I am trying to gather information as to compensation packages for retina positions in both retina only and multi-speciality practices.
1) What type of starting salaries should I look for?

2) What level of "overhead" should I look for (indicating either a healthy or unhealthy practice), and will those numbers differ from retina only to multi-speciality.

3)More importantly, as I am looking for a long term fit, what type of long term total compensation should I be looking for.

I am focusing on smaller towns (say an hour from a major metro area), as I want access to larger cities but don't want to live there. Thank you all for your time.

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[MstaKing10]

varies widely, you will hopefully get some good info on this forum to get you ballpark figures.

Big difference between retina only and multispecialty and this is good to think about far in advance. Pros and cons to each. Multispecialty tends to have higher overhead. Nice thing is patient base is built into the practice so referrals will come quick and practice building is less of an issue. I hear overhead numbers as low as 30% to as high as 70%. Too low may mean they are running too lean, too high may mean they are not watching their expenses or will use you to cover their high operating expenses.

Starting salary varies from $200-350k first year (what I am hearing). Bonus/productivty added on top of that. Ceiling is high, especially once you make partner.

Look out for PE vs non PE owned. Starting salary for PE owned is higher. May have lower ceiling. Uncertain partnership track either way, as non PE owned groups may soon become PE owned. Be sure you ask which way there are leaning if non PE owned.

I've seen 7 figure yearly income reported on this forum. High six figures pretty realistic for partnership level doc.

Having job secured by end of first year is ideal. Takes the pressure off of 2nd year so you can focus on learning and surgery. Plenty of time to get medical license in state you choose and get credentialed on insurance plans, hospitals and ASCs so you can hit the ground running when you start.

Good luck!

 

[mjohnsonets]

varies widely, you will hopefully get some good info on this forum to get you ballpark figures.

Big difference between retina only and multispecialty and this is good to think about far in advance. Pros and cons to each. Multispecialty tends to have higher overhead. Nice thing is patient base is built into the practice so referrals will come quick and practice building is less of an issue. I hear overhead numbers as low as 30% to as high as 70%. Too low may mean they are running too lean, too high may mean they are not watching their expenses or will use you to cover their high operating expenses.

Starting salary varies from $200-350k first year (what I am hearing). Bonus/productivty added on top of that. Ceiling is high, especially once you make partner.

Look out for PE vs non PE owned. Starting salary for PE owned is higher. May have lower ceiling. Uncertain partnership track either way, as non PE owned groups may soon become PE owned. Be sure you ask which way there are leaning if non PE owned.

I've seen 7 figure yearly income reported on this forum. High six figures pretty realistic for partnership level doc.

Having job secured by end of first year is ideal. Takes the pressure off of 2nd year so you can focus on learning and surgery. Plenty of time to get medical license in state you choose and get credentialed on insurance plans, hospitals and ASCs so you can hit the ground running when you start.

Good luck!

I can second all of this. You may see higher bases than $350K depending on what areas of the country you're looking. Try to be open-minded on one, maybe two, long distance satellite locations. I know quite a few experienced and high earning retina docs and many have at least one location they go to once or twice a month that's 1+ hour away. It is not necessary to build a big practice but the amount of time spent vs. the reward sure seems worth it to many retina doctors.

As for comparing basic, private practice compensation packages, use this tool:
Compensation comparison

It's a little over simplified but it does the math for you and could be helpful negotiating between two groups on a compensation package.