DJFlare, are you in a group practice currently or hospital employee? Any recommendations on one vs the other in general? I'll be looking for a job next year for after fellowship and would appreciate some basic advice since my mentors so far have all been in academics their whole lives. Feel free to private message me if you prefer.
I'm in group practice. Hospital employees typically come with benefits, like healthcare, CME credits, 401k matching, etc. I used to be an employee too. I'd much prefer group practice. Much more autonomy and flexibility to decide how you want to practice. However, with ACA, it's going away.
Really? Even no health benefits? Is this normal for doctors, to basically be acting as if they're self-employed? I assumed they'd have employer-provided health insurance (that would have their place of employment as in-network) at the very least.
Is there a rule of thumb for how much of your income should go towards medical malpractice insurance?
It just depends on if the doctor joins a large employer such as an hospital, or they join a group practice. Many doctors are employees, and hence they get all the things employees get like benefits, holidays, sick days, etc.
Since I'm part of a group practice, I'm more or less the "employer". Hence, I pay the full amount for our health insurance held within our group (and it's expensive too, it's about $1400/month for a high deductible health insurance, for family of 4). If I don't work, I don't get paid, so no sick days or vacation etc. Good part is, I get to contribute to both sides of the 401k (employee contribution & profit sharing) so I can contribute 53K/year.
No, there's no rule of thumb for malpractice. It highly depends on the state and the specialty.