to be a specialist with your own practice

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
21

<p>1.) Malpractice is not a medical term, it's a legal one. Therefore I don't know what you're asking when you ask for it in "med terms".</p>

<p>2.) Malpractice is a common feature of all practices of medicine, but academic physicians usually have it covered by their institution. So it's still coming out of their compensation, they just don't realize it.</p>

<p>3.) First off, if one's gross is $900K, he's probably not a doctor. There are some exceptions. Second, $400K of that is going to taxes right away, so that leaves you with $500K, and that's not even considering malpractice.</p>

<p>4.) $20K actually is the national average malpractice premium. Obviously some specialties (neurosurg, ob/gyn) are much higher than others. Neurosurgeons I've met pay $140K.</p>

<p>5.) I cannot imagine that anybody pays $300K per year.</p>

<p>6.) What do you mean by successful? And were you referring to which specialties? Or were you looking for some other characteristic?</p>

22

<p>You should check out "Medical Economics" for some insights into this, and it might make sense to do so, but it worries me some that your doing this already. I'll try to link it if I cm beat the disappearing edit function.Bottom line is it's not unusual to spend half or more of the money collected on things like paying your office staff, leasing office space, equipment, etc. "Procedures" generate income;they need more overhead, but not as much as it generates. Aim a psychiatrist. I essentially sell time.Can't make a lot of money if what you do takes time.
<a href="http://www.memag.com/memag/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.memag.com/memag/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>click on the picture of " The Income Ladder", halfway down the page on the right side of this page.The right column is before taxes, which can be almost fifty percent of what you pay yourself.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=379594%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=379594&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

23

<p>1) So what exactly do you mean by Malpractice?Is it like paying 60% of your gross or something?? Also, if you work in a public hospital controlled by the local government, there is no malpractice correct? </p>

<p>2) Okay,"First off, if one's gross is $900K, he's probably not a doctor," well why don't you look at this scanario: An Ophthamologist who is specialized as a refractive srugeon decides to open his own practice, and calls it " Rick Lasik Center since Rick happens to be his name. He charges between $1,500-$2,500 depending on which package one purchases or prefers. * (Note he models actual Lasik packages from other centers)* Now, say he recieves 30 patients every month. If he charges between $1,500-$2,500 with 30 patients, he could potentially make between $45,000- $75,000 per month!! Thats between $540,000- $900,000 annualy. * Note he may have more patients in one month than compared to others. Compared to the the annual salary for ophthalmologists ranging from $218,264 to $414,228, private practice opthalmologists would be making nearly double the amount.</p>

<p>Though we have to consider the business goes well. To average approximately 30 patients a month is quite evident that it's going well. However, that may not be the case one year but could be the next year. Afterall, business is " very" risky!</p>

<p>*** BUT MY POINT IS, WHY IS THE TAX SO MUCH?????? </p>

<p>3) 20,000 a month, right??? but yeah thats pretty high for an annual $240000</p>

<p>4) When I'm talking about sucessful practices, I'm just asking in general, which specialists are more likely to have the most sucess in terms of final net pay $$$ , work hrs, and working environment... *** supposing the site is good and the business goes well*</p>

24

<p>In the end, is it relaly worth to invest in a 200k- 400k practice, when in the end, you'll be making less than actual yearly salaries in a hospital??
I think thats kind of cheap, paying 400k worth of tax!!!!... your better off working in a hospital. Then why do ppl say, some docs can make more than a million??? For example, Invasive Cardiologist are among the highest paid docs, and according to memag.com, 2005 the private practice revenue for an invasive cardiologists was 900k, though his " total compensation" was $400,200....??????? Then who can reach a million???</p>

25

<p>BUT MY POINT IS, WHY IS THE TAX SO MUCH?????? </p>

<p>Do you mean income taxes? Oh man, that's a long answer, but suffice it to say that incomes above @ 100k are taxed at the highest rate; between federal, state, & local, close to 50%. It pays for things like public schools, roads, police officers, etc.People who are self. employed (private practice) also have to pay move for social security. Everyone (but the richest. and I don't mean doctors) has to pay taxes, but it does Make you wonder why you borrow so much, go to school so long and work so much, just to give maybe 60K or more right back.</p>

26

<ol>
<li><p>Malpractice is when you screw up as a doctor and patients sue you. Sometimes it's not your fault but patients sue you anyway (and win). Hence, you have to buy insurance against this. A pediatrician who's seeing a bunch of well-visits and runny noses a day is not going to be sued very often. His malpractice insurance is going to be low. A neurosurgeon who cuts people's heads open all the time runs a bigger of risk of any mistake killing his patient. Thus, he has greater malpractice insurance. If you have your own private practice, you pay for the insurance. If you're part of a HMO or something, the HMO will take care of the legal matters and insurance. But again, part of your salary will be deducted to pay for the costs. You can't get out of paying for malpractice insurance unless you want to risk patients suing your @$$ all over the place.</p></li>
<li><p>Again, the important stat is the net income. You have overhead and such to cover when you run a private business. </p></li>
<li><p>No, 20K per year. 100k+ per year for the more risky specialties.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>YOU HAVE TO PAY INCOME TAXES WHETHER YOU WORK IN A HOSPITAL OR IN YOUR OWN PRACTICE. Most doctors do both.</p>

<p>I think we're getting further away from medical issues to issues of economics and well...common sense.</p>

27

<p>no dude, where did you get 60k??? its way more than that... </p>

<p>" First off, if one's gross is $900K, he's probably not a doctor. There are some exceptions. Second, $400K of that is going to taxes right away, so that leaves you with $500K, and that's not even considering malpractice. "</p>

<p>$400k = $ 400,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......thats insane.. so your telling me that is just state tax????</p>

28

<p>On top of that, what about Malpractice????? How much is that going to be..</p>

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<p>Calm down! I'm not a "dude". Why are you stressing about this? I said 60K because I was referring to more average taxes, for more average income (like mine; I work part-time, and that's all my taxes, which is about half of my income after my pretty low overhead..). We cross posted. Sheesh!</p>

30

<p>I find it slightly disconcerning that the OP (who's probably some HS kid) is already planning to deal with incomes of 600-900k when most doctors make in the 100,000-200,000 level. 60k is plenty to pay in taxes, my friend.</p>

31

<p>NORCALGUY, CAN ANY DOC MAKE MORE THAN $$1,000,000???annualy</p>

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<p>Who are you reffering as some HS kid me? lol</p>

33

<p>No offense, but I really hope you are still in high school. Your naivete amazes me. I refuse to believe that a college student, just a couple of years away from applying to medical school, could be so clueless about the profession.</p>

34

<p>Okay say your gross income is 900k and your malpractice insurance is 100000 per year. Other taxes will be how much??? around 60000 i suppose .. So that leaves you with an overhead of 740k after paying both malpractice insurance and taxes.... so really in the end, your deducting around 150k-200k... not bad..</p>

35

<p>Not to mention taxes...</p>

36

<p>Yeah, well I'm going to be a sophmore in august....I'm just learning about this right now cuz i was thinking abt starting on after i complete my residency. Do you think that is a good idea or should i first practice in a hospital setting then open a private practice?</p>

37

<p>How much are taxes?? an additional 10,000 or something</p>

38

<p>Are you trying to tell me you're a Sophomore in medical school? Perhaps you are a Sophmore in college. Are you telling me you've never worked or paid taxes before? There is time. Check out Medical Economics, but first figure out if you have a passion about medicine. If you don't start with that, you cant practice with it.</p>

39

<p>No, Shrinkrap, I'm GOING to be a sophmore in highschool. I was just answering Norcalguy's question. I suggest you scroll up and re- read our convo ( you might just find it) * 3rd post to be exact*</p>

40

<p>Norcalguy, which Med School are you attending? Is it Cornell? btw, have you heard abt the nanobiotechnology internship at cornell?? I was actually looking forward to that this upcoming holiday season..</p>