<p>of the highest 25 paying jobs, the first 9 are doctors. according to forbes, "The medical profession continues to dominate the top end of our list of the 25 best- and worst-paying jobs in America". </p>
<p>Examining salaries is a stupid way to measure compensation, because it fails to use discount values, bonuses, per-hours corrections, and equity.</p>
<p>true; im curious how current doctors interpret these numbers...any current docs do you think that in spite of the top 9 salaries in america (and about 15/25) being doctors, that with malpractice and everything, that medicine is not economically worth it? purely on a economics level</p>
<p>Not a current doctor, but an economics major:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=192088%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=192088</a></p>
<p>Notice that the only adjustment made here is for the time delay and bonuses. No adjustments have been made for malpractice, taxes (which hit harder when your money is more concentrated), or per-hour adjustments.</p>
<p>I have seen that you talked about a drop in salaries for doctors. Is it the same for the professors at medical school? And also, can salaries of an family practice doctor<em>for example</em> drop below 100k a year if you count salary decrease, malpractice...?</p>
<p>1.) Academic physicians are paid much less in the first place. Whether they are seeing rises or drops, I don't know. I suspect they're probably seeing a drop now for competition reasons, but I don't know that for sure.</p>
<p>2.) From what I can tell, the mean FP income seems to be around $150K (salary.com for Durham, NC) and falling. Malpractice premiums are unlikely to be $50K, although taxes certainly would be more than that. Of course, that's the mean/median -- meaning half of FP doctors make less than that. The 25th percentile in Durham is $133K, though, so the spread is pretty narrow.</p>
<p>3.) Again, however, I must emphasize over and over again that salaries are a very poor way to estimate how lucrative a job is.</p>
<p>But can academic MDs who teach at a medical school still practice medecine aside from their teaching? (in France, some professors still hold a private medical job while conducting research...)</p>
<p>what makes you think physicians salaries are likely to decrease in the future? the article says they have consistently increased over the last few years.</p>
<p>they have to increase...because the population increases....the place where doctors are most needed is rural areas.</p>
<p>and isnt there going to be a greater need for doctors since there will be so many old people in the country?</p>
<p>1.) Academic physicians do see patients; they are training medical students and that is part of the process.</p>
<p>2.) The drop, to the best of my knowledge, is only documented anecdotally.</p>
<p>3.) That would be one factor pushing demand (and therefore income) up, but there are many other factors pushing them down, not least including potential government regulation.</p>
<p>4.) And obviously -- or at least this should be obvious -- population growth by itself won't push demand per doctor up unless the population of doctors stays constant, which it isn't.'</p>
<p>5.) One possible reason salaries may be creeping up over the past few years is that the 1990s saw dramatic gains in HMO penetration which are now receding slightly, meaning that a very dramatic cliff now has a slight hill to it. HMO penetration should be expected to re-increase (or at least not continue dropping) over the next few years.</p>
<p>Does #4 suggest that though salaries will drop, getting in medical school will no become less competitive?</p>
<p>Might become somewhat less competitive. But they're never going to have vacant seats -- not when there's 2.5 applicants for ever seat now. You might see that ratio drop to like 1.8 or 1.9.</p>
<p>
[quote]
what makes you think physicians salaries are likely to decrease in the future? the article says they have consistently increased over the last few years.
[/quote]
Most physicians do not receive salaries per se. Rather, they receive compensation based on productivity (volume and type of procedure or visit) and a fee schedule, which varies greatly between payors. Physicians in large group practices may receive payment less directly correlated to productivity, but still determined by payor mix. Doctors increase their income by increasing patient volume and by tweaking payor mix (primarily by limiting the number of medicare patients in a practice).
[quote]
and isnt there going to be a greater need for doctors since there will be so many old people in the country?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes. The increasing senior population will require more medical services.</p>
<p>Payment for medical services in most cases comes from insurance companies, not patients. Most seniors receive medical services paid for by medicare.</p>
<p>Medicare compensation per procedure and office visit has dropped in real dollars over the past 20 years. Medicare already pays poorly and has payment cuts scheduled for physicians. For the past several years, only last minute congressional action has prevented medicare payment cuts.</p>
<p>Every aspiring physician, unless independently wealthy and planning a charity practice, should study and understand the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula which determines medicare payments to physicians.
See <a href="http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=3728%5B/url%5D">http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=3728</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
Medicare payments to physicians are modified annually using the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. Because of flaws in its methodology, the SGR mandated physician fee cuts in recent years; only quick congressional fixes averted these cuts. Absent long-term congressional action, the SGR will mandate more fee cuts for the foreseeable future. Despite congressional action in December, a payment cut of 10 percent or more will take effect in 2008 to meet congressional budget neutrality requirements for Part B.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How much less do physicians in academic medicine get paid? Do they receive any benefits that private practice docs do not, such as having malpractice covered by the institution at which they practice?</p>
<p>1.) Much less. I believe I read somewhere that it's about half.</p>
<p>2.) Yes.</p>
<p>Relative salaries will be all over the map, depending on details of specialty and the nature of the academic practice.</p>
<p>Similarly, the associated benefits vary for the same reasons. </p>
<p>Salary structure will become clearer, if you care, during medical school. Better sources for physician income :
academic: AAMC report on medical faculty salaries
overall: medical economics annual survey or modern healthcare summary of annual surveys conducted by others.</p>
<p>Medical faculties tend to have a higher proportion of specialists, so the average income of faculty members might be higher than of doctors in private practice as a whole. However, relative income within specialty may be variable.</p>
<p>Private practice docs tend to have more autonomy, since usually they are not part of huge health care enterprises.</p>