How long is/was your partnership track period

[pathslides]

For those not in academics, how long is/was your partnership track period? Mine is 3 years and then my pay becomes equal to everyone else. Just curious to how others work, i.e. I have a buddy whose track period is 2 yrs but his practice then has a junior partner period for a couple of year where his pay is higher but not equal yet to senior partners.

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[univlad]

For those not in academics, how long is/was your partnership track period? Mine is 3 years and then my pay becomes equal to everyone else's. Just curious to how others work, i.e. I have a buddy whose track period is 2 yrs but his practice then has a junior partner period for a couple of year where his pay is higher but not equal yet to senior partners.

Two years salaried, then equal pay to everyone else.

 

[coroner]

First job, I had was 3 yrs to full partnership. Current job will take 5 yrs. I also received another offer prior to my current job at a place that was also 5 yrs to full partnership. I have worked at/heard of groups that offer 3 yrs or less to partnership like my first job and like the ones mentioned above, but there's some out there that will milk you for 5 as I've also experienced.

In my case(s), there were incremental raises at the end of the fiscal years progressing to partnership; however, they were not in increments equal to what full partners were making if you took the difference in income between junior employee status vs full partner and divided it by the number of years it took to make partner.

A word of caution to those who entering into pp jobs on partnership track. Most groups (including the ones I've been with) do not make you full partner until you complete a full calendar year of however many years it takes to make partner. For example, let's say you join a group this year out of fellowship with 3 yrs toward partnership. You start working in July 2017. 3 yrs to partnership means you'll be full partner in July 2020, right? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend!" Many groups distribute partnership bonuses at the end of the calendar year. Therefore, you would have to put in three full calendar years before you're eligible for that. In this example, that wouldn't be until end of Dec. 2020 even though you've technically worked there for 3.5 yrs at that point.

These seemingly longer times to partnership track is yet another economic indicator of the current state of affairs with the supply and demand of labor in our field i.e. job market. From talking with former med school classmates, friends, and hospital colleagues in other specialties who went into private practice in their respective fields, 3 yrs to partnership would be an absolute stretch. There's plenty who make it in 2 yrs and some in even 1. I've never heard of any gas, rads, or derm groups where it take 5 yrs to make partner...

 

[Euchromatin]

3 years to partnership ,with small incremental salary increases each year. The partners all get the same base salary and bonuses are divided in an equitable way, based on the amount vacation taken.

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[icpshootyz]

4.5 total years. 1.5 years employed period before partner track, then 3 year incremental partner track to work up to full partner. The extra 0.5 year was, as others mentioned above, the fact that contract changes only happen on Jan 1 and I had started in July following my fellowship.

 

[Sulfinator]

4.5 years, annual pay increases until partnership, I thought it was a fair deal given that it was in the geographic area of my preference


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[pathstudent]

Mine was two years. I went from 200 (plus about 50k in benefits) to 220 (plus 50k in benefits) to 700k (includes retirement and other benefits) when I became partner plus I get 4 months of a year vacation and the days are 8-4 ish. People in academics and corporate type groups have no idea how much they generate and how much is skimmed. Academics have a lot of overhead but people that join corporate groups are just filling the pockets of MBAs.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

Mine was two years. I went from 200 (plus about 50k in benefits) to 220 (plus 50k in benefits) to 700k (includes retirement and other benefits) when I became partner plus I get 4 months of a year vacation and the days are 8-4 ish. People in academics and corporate type groups have no idea how much they generate and how much is skimmed. Academics have a lot of overhead but people that join corporate groups are just filling the pockets of MBAs.

I ran with a corp group my first year out, and pulled about half what you're doing workin 10hr days. Nice to know I made some B-school douchebags richer.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

First job, I had was 3 yrs to full partnership. Current job will take 5 yrs. I also received another offer prior to my current job at a place that was also 5 yrs to full partnership. I have worked at/heard of groups that offer 3 yrs or less to partnership like my first job and like the ones mentioned above, but there's some out there that will milk you for 5 as I've also experienced.

In my case(s), there were incremental raises at the end of the fiscal years progressing to partnership; however, they were not in increments equal to what full partners were making if you took the difference in income between junior employee status vs full partner and divided it by the number of years it took to make partner.

A word of caution to those who entering into pp jobs on partnership track. Most groups (including the ones I've been with) do not make you full partner until you complete a full calendar year of however many years it takes to make partner. For example, let's say you join a group this year out of fellowship with 3 yrs toward partnership. You start working in July 2017. 3 yrs to partnership means you'll be full partner in July 2020, right? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend!" Many groups distribute partnership bonuses at the end of the calendar year. Therefore, you would have to put in three full calendar years before you're eligible for that. In this example, that wouldn't be until end of Dec. 2020 even though you've technically worked there for 3.5 yrs at that point.

These seemingly longer times to partnership track is yet another economic indicator of the current state of affairs with the supply and demand of labor in our field i.e. job market. From talking with former med school classmates, friends, and hospital colleagues in other specialties who went into private practice in their respective fields, 3 yrs to partnership would be an absolute stretch. There's plenty who make it in 2 yrs and some in even 1. I've never heard of any gas, rads, or derm groups where it take 5 yrs to make partner...

Begs the question: why'd you leave the first job to go to another one with a longer partnership track?

 

[coroner]

I get 4 months of a year vacation and the days are 8-4 ish.

What is the size of your metro area? In general, this is harder to come by in big cities/coasts. And, how many surgicals do you average/yr? I'd imagine you must be cranking them out and need every bit of those 4 months off to avoid burning out...

People in academics and corporate type groups have no idea how much they generate and how much is skimmed. Academics have a lot of overhead but people that join corporate groups are just filling the pockets of MBAs.

There's some who are very much aware of the profiteering of corporate labs, but they're happy with there 9-5 factory-esque type work at these slide mills. This gives them the luxury of not having to worry about billing, call coverage, frozens, autopsies, 7AM conferences, admin meetings, and all the other responsibilities that typically come with being hospital-based. Although, this comes at a price i.e. "skimming" from employer.

Begs the question: why'd you leave the first job to go to another one with a longer partnership track?

Lost the contract to the biggest hospital in our practice when it merged with a larger healthcare organization. They wouldn't allow our group to do private billing anymore, even though we had been established there for 30+ yrs (long before my time). Everybody's income took a hit and there were too many mouths to feed and not enough food on the table. Welcome to the business side of healthcare...

 

[cmz]

It took me two years after training to get two hospital contracts (equal partner with one other pathologist) and open up my own private anatomic lab.

 

[pathstudent]

What is the size of your metro area? In general, this is harder to come by in big cities/coasts. And, how many surgicals do you average/yr? I'd imagine you must be cranking them out and need every bit of those 4 months off to avoid burning out...


There's some who are very much aware of the profiteering of corporate labs, but they're happy with there 9-5 factory-esque type work at these slide mills. This gives them the luxury of not having to worry about billing, call coverage, frozens, autopsies, 7AM conferences, admin meetings, and all the other responsibilities that typically come with being hospital-based. Although, this comes at a price i.e. "skimming" from employer.


Lost the contract to the biggest hospital in our practice when it merged with a larger healthcare organization. They wouldn't allow our group to do private billing anymore, even though we had been established there for 30+ yrs (long before my time). Everybody's income took a hit and there were too many mouths to feed and not enough food on the table. Welcome to the business side of healthcare...

The size of my metro area is around 4000000. Yes we work our asses off. People that work for corporate labs like specialty labs like neogenomics, or POD labs for GI docs or hospital based corporate jobs are total douches. Would you be willing to take some call, do a few 7am conferences and go to a few admin meetings for an extra 300,000 a year plus have a lot more vacation plus have better benefits and autonomy? People that work for genoptyix, corporate groups or Pod labs are like dull sheep. At least ones that work in academics are more interesting because their environment is more interesting.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

The size of my metro area is around 4000000. Yes we work our asses off. People that work for corporate labs like specialty labs like neogenomics, or POD labs for GI docs or hospital based corporate lab jobs like Ameripath are total douches. Would you be willing to take some call, do a few 7am conferences and go to a few admin meetings for an extra 300,000 a year plus have a lot more vacation plus have better benefits and autonomy? People that work for genoptyix, Ameripath or Pod labs are like dull sheep. At least ones that work in academics are more interesting because their environment is more interesting.

Not everyone's got the option to be a partner in a private pathology practice anymore. Some people (ahem, me) need to be employed by hospitals, paid from the same funds as the cleaning staff. It's degrading, tbh.

 

[Dave CX]

The size of my metro area is around 4000000. Yes we work our asses off. People that work for corporate labs like specialty labs like neogenomics, or POD labs for GI docs or hospital based corporate lab jobs like Ameripath are total douches. Would you be willing to take some call, do a few 7am conferences and go to a few admin meetings for an extra 300,000 a year plus have a lot more vacation plus have better benefits and autonomy? People that work for genoptyix, Ameripath or Pod labs are like dull sheep. At least ones that work in academics are more interesting because their environment is more interesting.

I work for GI docs and I do much better financially that 90% of pathologists. And if being hospital based for you means only a couple meetings here and there...Congrats. I found it way more of a pain in the ass.

 

[deleted314957]

The size of my metro area is around 4000000. Yes we work our asses off. People that work for corporate labs like specialty labs like neogenomics, or POD labs for GI docs or hospital based corporate lab jobs like Ameripath are total douches. Would you be willing to take some call, do a few 7am conferences and go to a few admin meetings for an extra 300,000 a year plus have a lot more vacation plus have better benefits and autonomy? People that work for genoptyix, Ameripath or Pod labs are like dull sheep. At least ones that work in academics are more interesting because their environment is more interesting.

Wow! Painting with a pretty broad brush, aren't you? Don't be too impressed with yourself.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

I work for GI docs and I do much better financially that 90% of pathologists. And if being hospital based for you means only a couple meetings here and there...Congrats. I found it way more of a pain in the ass.

that's because the job market is ****.

 

[pathstudent]

I work for GI docs and I do much better financially that 90% of pathologists. And if being hospital based for you means only a couple meetings here and there...Congrats. I found it way more of a pain in the ass.

Trust me. The GI docs you work for wouldn't let their referral base skim half their professional revenue.

 

[Dave CX]

Trust me. The GI docs you work for wouldn't let their referral base skim half their professional revenue.

Couldn't care less. No nights/weekends/call/cp/autopsies/meetings/administrators/frozen/grossing/etc is more important. To each his own though.

 

[pathstudent]

Couldn't care less. No nights/weekends/call/cp/autopsies/meetings/administrators/frozen/grossing/etc is more important. To each his own though.

Good point. Yes. To each his or her own. Glad you found a good fit.

 

[coroner]

Your GI docs are your administrators and can like fire you with little notice. You are nothing to them.

And we are no more to our hospital administrators who will treat us like a commodity just as easily. All it takes is a buyout from a larger healthcare network or another pathology group to swoop in and offer to do the same job for half the Part A. Don't be naive enough to think having superstar scope skills or playing golf with the CEO makes you immune to anything. It's a business just like the NFL and they will cut you in a heartbeat if need be. I've seen it happen. Being a hospital-based pathologist offers no guarantees either. The best thing you can do is squirrel away as much of your income if and when that day comes...

 

[deleted314957]

And we are no more to our hospital administrators who will treat us like a commodity just as easily. All it takes is a buyout from a larger healthcare network or another pathology group to swoop in and offer to do the same job for half the Part A. Don't be naive enough to think having superstar scope skills or playing golf with the CEO makes you immune to anything. It's a business just like the NFL and they will cut you in a heartbeat if need be. I've seen it happen. Being a hospital-based pathologist offers no guarantees either. The best thing you can do is squirrel away as much of your income if and when that day comes...

Very true.

 

[Thrombus]

And we are no more to our hospital administrators who will treat us like a commodity just as easily. All it takes is a buyout from a larger healthcare network or another pathology group to swoop in and offer to do the same job for half the Part A. Don't be naive enough to think having superstar scope skills or playing golf with the CEO makes you immune to anything. It's a business just like the NFL and they will cut you in a heartbeat if need be. I've seen it happen. Being a hospital-based pathologist offers no guarantees either. The best thing you can do is squirrel away as much of your income if and when that day comes...

Thanks to our CAP, ASCP, ABP, and Academia everywhere who have FAILED to protect the field with massive overtraining while they live off their gravy train of dues/subsidies. Meanwhile residents are taught to keep their mouths shut and "be professional". Well, professionalism goes two ways. We are told to be professionals while being treated like cheap commodities. We might as well throw our lots in with the hospital toilet paper and try to become the cheapest alternative.