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Why do radiologists make so much money?
Resident Alien said:why are you wasting so much time?
PublicHealth said:Why do radiologists make so much money?
skypilot said:The reason they make so much money is the volume of readings they can do in a day and the price they can charge.
Lets say they read 150 xrays per day and charge $100 per read. That is $15,000 in one day.
Computerization has made the reading quicker and the undersupply of radiologists keeps the price up. Everyone wants an MRI, CAT scan or Xray these days so there is plenty of volume.
skypilot said:The reason they make so much money is the volume of readings they can do in a day and the price they can charge.
Lets say they read 150 xrays per day and charge $100 per read. That is $15,000 in one day.
Computerization has made the reading quicker and the undersupply of radiologists keeps the price up. Everyone wants an MRI, CAT scan or Xray these days so there is plenty of volume.
physiclas87 said:Radiologists don't make sick money, considering the time it takes to train. Sick money is made by those who did fellowships, so after college, it takes 10 years to train a radiologist. 10 years!
zzz1 said:How competitive is mammo fellowship? Supply and demand of mammo-trained rad doctors?
zzz1 said:Do you have to complete a fellowship in order to make sick money? Can you make sick money (350k plus) with just a radiology residency in a relatively large metro city? What about rural areas?
PublicHealth said:Why do radiologists make so much money?
f_w said:No, it is not 'sick money' (and just ignore Dr Cuts posts on this issue. He mistakes the flyers the recruiters send him for reality. Upon further investigation, most of the offers clogging up my mailbox turn out to be real dogs)
Though I still wonder why the recruiting groups and recruiters do this kind of things,
they are dealing with rad residents who can read after all. It's not like they are dealing with dumb high school drop outs.
Why can't they just be straightforward with their offers?
Is there age discrimination in rad groups? The rad group covering my hospital seems to have no one above the age of 55.
I am just wondering if the politics of private rad practice groups forced them to retire by 55, because they "read slower" when older or what?
I can't imagine it's all because they are rich and playing golf. What's the typical and maximum upper-limit age of a real world practicing radiologist? Can they practice into their 60's or even 70's like some FP's?
In general, what's the organizational politics like within a typical rad group?
f_w said:Thats a loaded question.....
I think Radiologists get better as they get older.
skypilot said:My mom is 74 and still practicing Radiology so it is possible. My uncle practiced till 68. I think Radiologists get better as they get older. At some point in your career you will have seen everything.
I heard it's due to the fact that lawyers usually sue everyone on the chart when something goes wrong and that invariably involves the rad doc
Or is there a major distinction between being sued and being found guilty of negliency or something?
I thought radiologist used to all be hospital employees a long time ago, right?
f_w said:The problem in rads is that the answer is allways on the film. A finding on physical exam you missed is difficult to proove later on in court (if you didn't document it, its not there). In radiology, some jack#)( surgeon expert witness for the other side can allways point out that 'shadow' on the 'mammagram' which turned out to be cancer later on.
So you're saying that most expert witnesses for the plaintiff won't even be radiologists? How hard would it be for the defense to drum up radiologists as expert witnesses? When I'm a radiologist, I wouldn't mind doing some pro-bono expert testimony to help out fellow rads.
So I guess what I am asking is, do the private groups contract with the hospitals?
jmou123 said:Also, if one of the perks of rads is the fact that you can expect partner pay/benefits in one year, what does that involve? And, as posted above the ave rads guys makes 350K after 3 years. Then what is with the 900K that is on that website if these offers dont exist?
f_w said:The real money is outpatient imaging on the 'worried well insured well'. The 5th knee MRI on some middle aged tennis player with full health insurance is what pays the bills. Also, if a group owns equipment in an outpatient/office facility, they will collect a 'global' fee which consists of the technical AND professional components. And as the bulk of the money (and profit) is in the technical fee, running an outpatient imaging center is where the money is.
GMO2003 said:you're probably right...I've seen commercials on tv for the fully body scan centers that utilize EBT (electron beam tomography)...those rads are probably preying on the rich hypochondriacs with money to burn...it sounds a bit shady but to each his own I guess
.I've seen commercials on tv for the fully body scan centers that utilize EBT (electron beam tomography)...
I can't believe this would really happen, I mean, don't you sign a contract at the beginning? If they fire you, can't you sue them back? I just wonder if this kind of things really happen or is it just more of an urban legend? I mean it sounds like used car sales or something. Any examples of such outlandish offers?
And recruiting firms do provide some form of a refund if the candidate leaves within 3 months but it's usually not a 100% refund. At our company, we used to offer a 100% refund if the candidate left in 30 days and after that, we would prorate the refund per day until 90 days. We were never worried because we knew a candidate was unlikely to quit after only 30 days even if the job was a total bad job.
f_w said:In medicine, you typically need a couple of months of lead time before you can really leave a job. There is a considerable amount of paperwork (credentialing, insurance#s, licensing) which has to be taken care of. Unless the group really p###$ off the new hire on day 1, people are unlikely to leave in the first 3 months. It is more common for people to leave after a year or so, once they find out that a lot of the things they where promised don't actually exist or once they notice that the 900k are for one of the senior partners who has a different partnership contract from anyone else.
radworking.com is a site mainly used by recruiters it seems. Now, there are ethical recruiters who are genuinely interested to find the right candidate for the right job. But as the insider has pointed out, their ads won't give you numbers but rather emphasize the factors making it a truly good job (years in business, democratic group, identical partnership contracts, owns outpatient centers, location...)
Many of the jobs making 'sick money' will be in scenic locations only described as:
- By plane, its only 3 hours to St Louis, 4 hours to Minneapolis and 4.5 hours to the metropolis of Omaha (= in the middle of nowhere).
- The location is an 'all america town' (= won't find too many people looking different from you)
- a 'great place to raise a family' (= small agricultural hicktown)
- for a friends of the outdoors (= because there is nothing else to do)
On further inquiry, you will find out that it is a small place where someone tried to take over the radiology of a community hospital by promising the moon to the administrators and is now paying through the nose for locums as he can't find the 4 rads he will eventually need to run the place......
Yes, there are good jobs out there, but they don't get advertised in this manner.
So you are telling me that most radiologists out there support blatant lying
the short partnership track was considered a bonus in the field of rads.
Also what are the real offers like?
What's a goodwill buy-in?
How do they handle 24/7 ER radiology coverage in a small town hospital with 1, 2 or 3 people?
Would they have high turnover rate due to fatigue from being on call 1 out of every 2 or 3 nights if the group only have 1-3 people?
How do they handle difficult cases outside of their general expertise like
mammo, IR, and neuro cases in rural hospitals?