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Back in the "golden days of medicine," the issue of compensation for physicians was more cut-and-dried than it
generally is today. Most physicians were self-employed solo practitioners. Upon completion of their
training, they selected a community to live in (generally near where they trained or close to their home towns)
and "hung up a shingle." How much they made was strictly a function of how many patients they saw.
Those who "caught on" and built a thriving practice earned more than those who, for whatever reason, could not
find patients.
Today, the great majority of physicians coming out of training are employed, either by group
practices, by hospitals, HMOs, or other organizations. Their compensation almost always comes in the form of
a salary or income guarantee, usually supplemented with a bonus. Number of patients seen still can affect
income, but compensation is also a function of other factors, including educational loan forgiveness,
forgiveness of income guarantees, benefits, profit-sharing, etc.
You will find information on some of these
factors in the Contracts section of this site. In this section we provide data regarding the amount of income
physicians generally earn each year as well as some of the other recruiting incentives commonly offered to
physicians.
Because so many physicians are presently employees and earn salaries, more organizations are
interested in what physicians make. Today, there are multiple surveys tracking physician income, whereas
ten years ago there were only one or two. You will find some of these surveys on this site, as well as
Merritt, Hawkins & Associates' Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives, which is used by many organizations
nationally as one benchmark for creating competitive physician recruiting packages.
We hope you find this
information of interest and we encourage you to contact us at 800-756-0003 if you have any questions or
comments.
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