Ever wonder why a colleague in the same specialty earns more money? There are wide variations in physician incomes and various reasons why that occurs, according to Medscape. Some of the reasons why some doctors are financially better off include: Some doctors are rockstars in their organization. Top-notch clinicians are valued by hospitals and healthcare systems for their ability to attract new patients and increase the organization’s prestige. "The rainmakers are going to be treated differently from the average employed physician. They can get very generous compensation packages, but they are expected to work very hard,” said Travis Singleton, a senior vice president at physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins. Those superstar doctors tend to be concentrated in a few high-earning specialties that include orthopedics, neurosurgery, invasive cardiology, ophthalmology, radiology, oncology and dermatology. Doctors take on leadership roles in hospital administration. Such a move up the ladder can result in higher incomes, much of it from bonuses. However, those high salaries may only come with the highest administrative positions. Doctors work in a large practice. Physicians in larger practices tend to earn more than those in small practices, according to the publication. Many of them also earn more than employed physicians in hospitals and health systems. The size of a practice is a strong indicator of income, along with patient volume and practicing at one’s full scope. It’s also the case that doctors in single-specialty practices earn more. One other factor that is driving salaries is demand. For the 11th year in a row, the most in-demand doctors were family physicians, according to a new survey released this week. That drove the average salary for family physicians to $231,000, a 17% increase since 2015, but still far less than the more than $1 million the heads of cardiothoracic surgery and ophthalmology at the University of California at San Diego made, according to Medscape. Source
