| Topic Name: |
Need Advice Going to Med |
| Message Name: |
Re-check your info |
| Date Posted: |
08/23/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
Don't listen to these guys. There is a lot of misinformation being spread here.
First, your debt will be high. It will be closer to 200k than 100K. If you attend a private medical school, your tuition alone will be a 100K for 4 years, not including living expenses. So total, you are looking at about 200K debt particularly if you have a family.
Second, income in medicine depends on your field. The shortest residency is 3 years which is family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine. According the Physician Salary survey which is conducted nationwide with participating physicians, the average starting salary for a family practice physician is 125K. Internal medicine was 128K and Pediatrics was 120K.
Those are the "gimme" residencies or the ones that any physician can acquire even if he just barely passes his classes and boards. Foreign medical graduates often have no choice but to accept these positions. Still that is the STARTING salary.
Here are additional starting salaries for other fields.
OB-GYN- 165K
Opthalmology-145K
Otolayngology-175K
Endocrinology-140K
Neurology-160K
Radiology-170K
Dermatology-160K
Psychiatry-150K
Cardiology-180K
As you can see, you will be able to pay off your loan fairly quickly. The median and senior salaries are nearly double and triple the numbers above. Just hold off buying your dream house and Benz and your loan will be signficantly payed off.
In addition, you can control where you live. If you have must live in SF, LA or San Diego, then you are going to endure a pay cut. But if you choose to live in places like Florida, Texas, Arizona Michigan etc. you can make upwards of the averages posted here. You will learn all about that in medical school.
Regarding nurse practioners stealing your job, don't worry about it. Hospitals still prefer residents out of medical school to nurse practioners. Residents are physicians that undergo training. They are less expensive than nurse practioners and patients feel more secure that a resident who is supervised by an attending is looking after you versus someone who has had far less schooling like a nurse practioner.
Malpractice insurance isn't the same for all doctors. Surgeons and OB-GYN doctors pay more malpractice insurance than other fields. It also depends where you work and your clientele etc. If you are grossing over 500K in revenue then malpractice insurance is simply seen as the cost of doing business. Keep in mind too, that having your own practice affords you certain tax breaks and shelters.
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| Message: |
Hi everyone...I'm a 4th year med student in SoCal looking to get into consulting...not so much for the money...but intellectually it just looks more interesting...and the healthcare system is rapidly disintegrating...I'd like to try to help prevent that from happening...Any suggestions on where I could start?(career-wise that is...there are infinite places to start fixing the system...Demanding Medical Excellence is an interesting book for those interested in that kind of thing)
The numbers cited in the previous post were from a total of around 700 responses from all the people in all the specialties...not necessarily a representative sample.
Anyway, my aside aside, AVERAGE salaries (not starting) for physicians per Physicians Search, Inc are as follows... (you can check for yourself) http://www.physicianssearch.com/physician/salary.html
Family Practice 122K
Pediatrics 121K
Internal Medicine 129K
Emergency Med 157K
G-surgery 190K
Psych 130K
Radiology 205K
Keep in mind that things like malpractice insurance and board licensing costs are continually rising and Medical reimbursement is dropping precipitously...now estimated to be less than the cost of the patient visit to the doc. There are things (such as Botox & Lasik) that are very lucrative...but the investment up front for an MD is staggering...I'm at 160K in debt load at present. Go to med school if you are fascinated by disease and want to diagnose and either operate, prescribe, or coordinate treatment. I wouldn't recommend doing it for the money.
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