<p>Like House.</p>
<p>how to earn $1m in medicine?</p>
<p>Treat politicians for constipation. There is plenty of demand and they have their own special health care plan.</p>
<p>“Most profitable fields of medicine”</p>
<p>Insurance company executive.</p>
<p>So, are you guys implying that physicians are the least money making doctors?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not necessarily, but the question asked what the most “profitable” fields of medicine were. Profitability is a ratio of output to input… not just simply a measure out output. </p>
<p>From a financial sense (which seems to have been the gist of the question) physicians often rank quite low considering, in the case of an insurance company executive for example, others in the medical field can make similar money without having had gone to medical school, residency, debt up to your eyeballs, etc.</p>
<p>Considering other non-financial factors, such as doing an important job that helps people, can of course tip the scale… but of course that too has a flip side often in the forms of severely limited personal time until well late into ones career. It’s not an easy issue.</p>
<p>However, again the question implied money and if ones primary goal in life is to make a lot of money then being a physician is probably not the best place to start in terms of “profitability.”</p>
<p>Net or gross? Doubt its net.
rb</p>
<p>I would add that those physicians making the top incomes are not necessarily “the best” they are the most profit-motivated. Often this means investing large amounts of money in advertising, marketing to referring docs, and often illegal kickbacks. Many high income orthopedic surgeons get under the table payments for device manufacturers for using their equipment. The highest incomes almost surely mean doing lots of unindicated procedures because they are profitable, rather than because a patient needs them. The “best” surgeons often tell patients “you do not need surgery”, while the wealthiest surgeons would never say such a thing. At least not to someone whose insurance or personal funds would pay the fee.</p>
<p>I would say for the physicans that work 70+ hours a week they can easily make $1 mill and over but when you put choose that 70+hour category there and only a few specialties that have to work that much. #1 is a neurosurgeon. They can easily work over 70 hours a week because they are very expensive for hospitals to hire (they have to pay the neurosurgeon and the neursurgeon needs staff personnel, office assistants, etc… more $$$$$$$ to pay) therefore it is nothing new to have 1 neurosurgeon in a hospital working that many hours. But the same work goes for the pay. Nothing is earned easily and every cent of that money is earned by a physician.</p>
<p>This is clearly false in almost every dimension. Almost every physician specialty could work over 70 hours a week if they desired, and almost every specialty will have some physicians who do. Almost no physicians, by contrast, make $1M from their medical careers.</p>
<p>Some, of course, also own shares in specialty hospitals or are entrepreneurs in other ways, and can top $1M in that manner. But almost no physicians actually top $1M from their activities in patient care.</p>
<p>For the most part, hospitals do not “hire” neurosurgeons. Like most physicians, most neurosurgeons are private practice. Patients contract with insurers, who pay hospitals and separately pay physicians.</p>
<p>Even if neurosurgeons were hospital employees, hiring decisions would be a question of net revenue rather than gross cost.</p>
<p>Neurosurgeons are in high demand not because hospitals have to pay them money, but because Medicare chooses to reimburse them quite well (and private insurers follow) and because the specialty maintains a relatively low ceiling on the number of neurosurgeons.</p>
<p>Also, folks who get on speakers bureaus of pharmas can earn extra income that way as well, including doing research, if that appeals or just giving talks around the country. None of the docs I personally know make $1M & they’ve been in practice for decades. Yes, the CEO of insurers often make $1M or more, with or w/o med degree.</p>
<p>My father worked EM 100 hours a week for years at a relatively lucrative hospital system and he definitely wasn’t breaking a million.</p>
<p>An md friend of ours makes a million a year which I gather is unusual. However this individual is internationally renowned in their field with speaking engagements around the world and has an endowed chair at a very prestigious medical school</p>
<p>I know some world renowned physicians, in the transplant field whose salary is close to $600k, however this does not include the money they earn in monetizing their level of expertise. They all work well over 70 hours/wk and live and breathe their work. They have arrived, you might say because companies dream of gaining this expertise for medical advisory boards, at speaking engagements or conferences etc. They gain ‘Kim Kardashian’ celeb status in the medical field for the notoriety they earn. Most that I have known invest heavily into new medical technologies and medical office ventures. Because they have vast resources, they make monumental gains. This is a physician entrepreneur, which is quite different than a physician practicing for a meager $135k/yr (w/ $200k in student loans). </p>
<p>What I find appalling is using a broad stroke to paint a genuine profession, which is deserving of a comfortable salary. I often wonder if the structure of investing is what is viewed with contempt. You might be able to hypothesize a corrupt relationship unfolds when physician ‘entrepreneurs’ join hands with hospital investments. We all hope that every physician prescribes diagnostics for the right reasons. Most of the time it is with good intentions. I believe the docs have put themselves in an unfavorable light due to this unholy alliance. </p>
<p>Regulations need to be implemented in order to change the tide. Unfortunately the bad press will precede it. There should be better ethical standards in place for physicians; most people do not oppose paid board positions, speaking or consulting. When physicians are allowed to perpetuate more profitable hospital services it becomes a class and political issue. When the poor cannot afford services, in the past a physician might be willing to see patients and ‘write it off.’ Now this is delegated to a SuperHospital and a collection agency. Most physicians I know have wise profitable investments-for retirement, but have maintained integrity and humility. Some have created a behemoth which will afford them a lucrative retirement and great personal wealth; much of the money is spent by family and they have little personal time except on lavish vacations they can afford. People do not enjoy watching physicians become celebrity, which further implicates inaccessibility. </p>
<p>If a few steps were taken people in time might not oppose $1mil salary, but they need to TRUST it is was earned ethically.</p>
<p>No</p>
<p>Please don’t go into medicine. You are why there are too many lawyers</p>