Salary of Cardiologist

Parents Forum
41

<p>Newmassdad, your theories don't wash well either.</p>

<p>Indeed, supply effects demand where doctors are concerned. In martkets where top doctors are in great demand, and there are many, doctors play by different rules. They set their own prices and you deal with your insurance company and pay the difference. That explains the pediatricians in Scarsdale, for example. Practices with VIP plans are only in affluent areas, too as are the most expensive plastic surgeons and the emporium dermatologists. Though I'll note that there are some pretty out of the way places (MN!) where people come from all over to seek out highly regarded specialists.</p>

<p>Your condesending remark about most of us of privelege never seeing the real world aside, I have qualified my posts with the fact that doctor salaries depend on where you work and the quality of the doctor.</p>

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<p>Doctors in cognitive specialties work no "less hard" then surgeons, they just work sitting down more of the time. Just because someone is standing up, lifting a liver, etc, doesn't make it any harder than diagnosing a mental illness or helping a family cope with a dying child...</p>

<p>Medical reimbursement is set in no small part as a result of the legacy of the first insurance policies, which were created to reimburse for expensive surgical procedures. </p>

<p>A real crime of many insurance policies is the discrimination they manifest towards developmental needs in children. If you are an adult and smoked your way into a stroke your speech therapy can be paid for readily...but if you are a child and have an articulation or language disorder as a result of a "developmental" process, good luck in getting cash out of an insurer...</p>

<p>The whole system is a mess, and it will stay a mess as long as the strongest players are the insurance companies, as is currently the case...</p>

43

<p>"Indeed, supply effects demand where doctors are concerned. " </p>

<p>Indeed, correct (but I think "affects" is probably more accurate). In some markets. In some settings. For some folks that have either the disposable income, or generous insurance, as I said before. </p>

<p>And how representative of the real world is this environment?</p>

<p>One may dream about being in the to 10% (or 5%, pick your number) of one's profession, but it rather risky, IMHO, to make decisions for, or plan for, such an outcome.</p>

<p>And how common is this? How many of us live in settings like this. </p>

<p>And look at robyrm's concern. Why does this problem exist, in a world of Scarsdale botique medicine?</p>

44

<p>"Undergrad economics major and Harvard MBA here. As a management consultant"</p>

<p>If all them followed all those docotors to Bermuda, the productivity of this country will shoot up.</p>

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<p>Bermuda sounds good to me!</p>

<p>Newmassdad, while the middle class is in decline in this Country and there are more poor than ever, there are also more affluent than ever. The last two decades produced a lot of wealth. So pockets of affluence are many, and it's not just the top few percent of "hot" specialty doctors that will do very well as boomers age.</p>

<p>And while a Harvard or Hopkins medical degree can help boost a doctors career, the real predictor of success for doctors is business savvy. So for someone who wants to make a lot of money as an MD, what's important is that they've done their research, gained business knowledge or help and kept their eye on the ball.</p>

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<p>Here is a true story of a Harvard MBA who was vacationing in Bermuda. He met a farmer who was relaxing under a tree and watching his herd graze. The MBA thought if he could get these farm animals, he could auction them off and that will pay for his trip to Bermuda.</p>

<p>He approached the farmer and said if could tell him how many cows were in this herd the farmer should give him all of them, and if he was wrong he would pay $10,000. The farmer agreed. The MBA got on his cell phone to his collegue asked him to use all the NASA and other resources he could muster and get an image of his coordinates. After that he spent another hour or so tabulating the data. Finally he said you have 43 cows.</p>

<p>The farmer said, wrong. All I have are 22 sheeps and 21 goats.</p>

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<p>Here's the version I've read (and has been on a bb ouside my office for years...)</p>

<p>A shepherd was herding his flocks in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Jeep Cherokee advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and a YSL tie, leaned out of the window and asked our shepherd: “If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?” </p>

<p>The shepherd looks at the yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers “sure!” </p>

<p>The yuppie parks the car, whips out his notebook, connects it to a cell-phone, surfs to a NASA page on the Internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system, scans the area, opens up a database and some 60 Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas. Finally he prints out a 150 page report on hi-tech miniaturized printer, turns round to our shepherd and says: “you have here exactly 1436 sheep!”</p>

<p>“This is correct. As agreed, you can take one of the sheep” says the shepherd. He watches the young man make a selection and bundle it in his Cherokee.</p>

<p>Then he says: “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?”</p>

<p>“Okay, why not” answers the young man.</p>

<p>“You are a consultant” says the shepherd.</p>

<p>“This is correct” says the yuppie, “How did you guess that?”</p>

<p>“Easy!” answers the shepherd. “You turn up here although nobody called you.
You want to be paid for the answer to a question I already knew the
solution to. And you don’t know **** about my business, because you took my dog!”</p>

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<p>yes come to think of it, your version is correct. Have you heard the following:</p>

<p>A Harvard MBA goes to Bermuda and gets lost and ends up in a small sea side village. Tired and hungry he was helped by a fisherman who gave him some fish and rice. The meal was pretty good. After the meal, the MBA asks the fisherman what he does in a day. Fisherman replies, "I get up in the morning take my boat fish till mid morning come home, my wife cooks the fish for the family with an age old recipe, then I go to the market sells my leftover food for some money, chat with my friends, come home take a nap and relax in the evening".</p>

<p>The Harvard MBA says,,"Man you got it all wrong, You have a recipe for fantastic food. You should fish more and cook more".</p>

<p>Fisherman says,"Then what?"</p>

<p>H-MBA," Save some money and buy a bigger boat and get more fish".</p>

<p>F-Man,"Then What?"</p>

<p>H-MBA,"Buy two boats, hire some help, grow the business, open a restaurant, and in a few years I can help you set up a Franchise."</p>

<p>F-man,"Then what?"</p>

<p>H-MBA,"Then you will make so much money that you can plan on retiring. Buy a mansion near the sea, get up whenever you want to, take naps and relax".</p>

<p>F-man," You just described my present life"</p>

49

<p>Wow, this thread has gone way off topic.</p>

50

<p>Couldn't have been a Harvard MBA, we only wear Hermes.</p>

51

<p>As a doc practicing in Alabama most of us sense that incomes will drop over time....medicine is a mess and such a financial burden that all players will most likely be affected....some specialties are insulated but the bulk of us are not. Seems obvious but the best way to enhance revenue is to see more patients!</p>

<p>Something to keep in mind is how flexible the hours can be...a lot of gals particularly work part time. Salary can thus vary greatly. </p>

<p>Cosmetics is BOOMING!! Not traditional medicine but you can make the argument that it is worthwhile to society...enhances self-esteem,etc. Middle class people shell out 2-5K by the buckets....I have a friend who does facial stuff...his patients are NOT from the exclusive parts of town.Amazing.</p>

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<p>How is cardiac surgery doing. Considering heart disease is the number one cause of death, cardiac surgeons must be needed right?</p>

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<p>There seems to be a consensus that most medical specialties will see a reduction in pay in the near future, with the exception of things like plastic surgery. Is that really true?</p>

<p>I thought that a lot of doctors (especially hte comparatively poorly paid ones like pediatricians) were going out of business because of high malpractice insurance? Or that potential doctors weren't entering the fields they wanted because they saw that their debts/insurance would make their decisions financially unadvisable? My point is, don't a lot of doctors already not make a lot of money?</p>

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<p>Not targeting anyone here, but I do find doctors where I live complain bitterly about how little money they make. They sob all the way to the gorgeous homes they drive to in their fancy foreign cars. I think maybe they expected to be Bill Gates.</p>

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<p>aparent5 - please come by our house sometime! If you find it gorgeous you'll be the first, and I could use the ego boost. And unless a Honda counts as a fancy foreign car .....</p>

<p>My h has never complained, bitterly or otherwise, about how little he earns, though it's rather significantly lower than the mean in his specialty (which requires six years of poorly paid post-med school training, btw). He considers himself lucky to be pursuing his childhood dream, though he's very disillusioned about the impact financial considerations have had on the practice of medicine.</p>

<p>Not that I don't know folks like the ones you mentioned (one of whom earns about $750K a year). Still, most docs really aren't in it to make a fortune. There are easier ways to earn a living.</p>

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<p>CV surgeons are well compensated...plastics also, especially if geared towards cosmetics as that is cash up front. As noted physicians in general are not rich but are well paid. In some cases malpractice ,etc will force people to relocate, drop out,etc....however that is still uncommon.</p>

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<p>370,000, but thats before masive insurance and stuff
It will remain a hot job for a while, because of the excessive number of overweight people and old people </p>

<p>Its too taxing a profession for me, but the salary should be compensation</p>

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<p>frazzled, i could have written the same thing about my husband though we're on opposite coasts.... we have friends who are teachers and we once figured out that they earned the same an hour as my H. one difference: the teachers have paid vacation, continuing education, insurance, holidays & retirement! go figure!</p>

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<p>Teachers are still underpaid... and do not have paid vacations, they have their salaries for the school year delayed to cover summer paychecks in some districts.</p>

<p>Difference between a cardiologist and God. God doesn't think he is a cardiologist.</p>

60

<p>Actually, when we made the comparison, we took summer into account, ofcourse!</p>

<p>I was more thinking of Easter & Christmas! But it doesn't matter as we were going by hours... including extra hours most professionals (including doctors & teachers -- thou maybe not attorneys & accountants LOL!) work w/out pay!</p>

<p>To be honest, my family hasn't had a vacation in 10 yrs. And we're fine! The point is that you can take into account earnings & should, but decisions for one's future must be tempered w/ a healthy dose of what will feed your soul! as well as a whole host of things that only the individual can assess for him/herself!</p>

<p>Frankly, I admire anyone doing any work that contributes to their being responsible for themselves, their family & society. Still I don't expect to be paid the same as a surgeon when I'm a librarian. I've seen the workload/financial burden differential...</p>