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salary vs hourly - which are you?


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Still having discussions with my clinic over salary issues.

 

One question I have for the masses - are you salary or hourly?

 

My clinic is telling me that my salary is only regarding "patient care" hours - so if my schedule of seeing patients only is technically an 8 hour day - they do not care that I am in the office 12 hours per day following up on labs, calling patients, writing/sending letters, etc.

 

My feeling is that my job entails much more than patients sitting in front of me.

 

 

Thoughts?

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full time hourly.

I get a straight hourly rate + production bonus. if I spend time on non-patient care activities(charting, phone calls, etc) and bill for it I get more in hourly but less in production because an hr spent writing charts lowers your production avg so you need to play the game of which will pay better. I always opt for the staright hourly and assume the bonus will be zero then when it arrives it really is a "bonus" and not money I was counting on to pay my bills.

don't work for free.

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salary plus bonus. hasn't been a big issue aside from taking one of my days off each week to stay caught up on charts, which stinks. But my base pay is basically equivalent to that of my peers who work 4 days/wk (I only work 3) and have enough time to do their charts during their work day, so I don't complain about it.

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EMEDPA

 

That is where I am at right now - I dont think I should be working for "free". The clinic is trying to tell me that the docs are expected to do the same - they do not pay them to do paperwork, etc. My last patient might be scheduled for 415 but they typically do not leave until 6 - which puts me out the clinic door about 730 after labs/phone calls/letters, etc are done. My so called 8 hour day is almost 12 and they want to base my pay on those 8 hours.

 

So maybe I should forward all of the labs/xrays/phone calls to the HR rep - since she thinks they are not part of patient care???

 

Sorry - irritable today :)

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or you can arrive early AND work through lunch...I have a friend in a similar situation. his day in fp clinic is 8-5 with a 1 hr unpaid lunch so he gets paid 8 hrs/day. he arrives at 7 and eats at his desk and doesn't take work home. he leaves on time and if the work isn't done it gets left on the pile for the next day and he hopes for a no show or cancellation at some point to get caught up. of course they often double book his time slots for pts who demand same day appts for their emergent narc refills....

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or you can arrive early AND work through lunch...I have a friend in a similar situation. his day in fp clinic is 8-5 with a 1 hr unpaid lunch so he gets paid 8 hrs/day. he arrives at 7 and eats at his desk and doesn't take work home. he leaves on time and if the work isn't done it gets left on the pile for the next day and he hopes for a no show or cancellation at some point to get caught up. of course they often double book his time slots for pts who demand same day appts for their emergent narc refills....

 

Yep, that about sums it up here too. I do not come in early - but will work through lunch in attempts to keep up.

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I always laugh when I am told the line that the doctors do it all the time. Right and they are paid extremely well for it. I am expected to do many of the same job functions, expected to know the same amount by a parent bringing in their child to see me, or by the old lady needing followup but yet I am paid very differently. One administrator joked that because they can only bill for 80% of the cost of a physician visit that is why my salary is what it is. I told him then I expect 80% of what the physicians are making, he suddenly didnt think it was such a funny conversation.

 

 

I am paid a salary for a 40 hour work week, no matter if I work more or less. Some days I stay late, some days I skip lunch, some days I come early, but some days I leave early, or take a long lunch. I feel it works out in the end. I also get an RVU based bonus if I meet goals.

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I always laugh when I am told the line that the doctors do it all the time. Right and they are paid extremely well for it. I am expected to do many of the same job functions, expected to know the same amount by a parent bringing in their child to see me, or by the old lady needing followup but yet I am paid very differently. One administrator joked that because they can only bill for 80% of the cost of a physician visit that is why my salary is what it is. I told him then I expect 80% of what the physicians are making, he suddenly didnt think it was such a funny conversation.

.

 

 

 

I had to laugh with what you just said - because that is the exact conversation I just had with HR. I am expected to see the same amount of patients, stay the same amount of hours, etc. (all of which I do). So when the HR rep told me exactly what was said to you - I had the same come back. Pay me what you pay the docs - or heck - even 80% (since we get lower reimbursement as a PA) and I will say nothing further about the hours.

 

She just looked at me with the deer in headlights look. Then smiled and looked back at her papers and said she was "taking notes" regarding our conversation.

 

CBR - yes, I see just as many patients as one of the docs in the practice - the other one is just crazy busy - BUT many of the patients complain all of the time that he doesnt pay attention to them because he is in and out of the exam room so fast - and then they come and see me - and stay with me as my patients.

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Salaried. I'm surgical hospitalist. I get a shift diff for the portions of my scheduled days that are early morning and late afternoon, but I can't adjust my timecard to reflect more than 80 hours in a pay period so I am never paid for extra hours, as it were. As far as your situation goes... I think it's understood in a salaried position that there will be times when you just do not get to leave "on time." If it's every single day that you're staying for 1.5 of your scheduled shifts, it's time to renegotiate somehow.

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I am salaried but I also receive overtime. I work in orthopedic surgery. If we only have a few surgeries and work 4 hours, I still get paid for a full 8 hours. If we are busy and work 10 hours, I get two hours of overtime. It feels like the best of both worlds. I also get a production bonus and paid extra for call. I feel very fortunate.

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Please note it is 85% of what doc's get, not 80%

 

 

makes a difference

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expect more of this as more doc's become employees of a health system - HR many times does not want to (never has) considered us the same as doc's, instead we are the same as nurses....... I have tried and tried to explain to them that we are REVENUE POSITIVE and the only other people in the clinic like this are the Doc's and therefor we should be paid based on this. RVU, Bonus, Pay a good salary....... keep talking this line, demand to see your billings and collections.

 

 

 

 

You are both right, in health care as a PA in primary care you are expected to work for free.... BUT you should have a good enough salary that this is not an issue - somewhere around 40% of collections with a good to great benni package.... 100k plus is reasonable, plus a bonus of some type (just like the doc's)

 

 

 

 

I love the idea of telling the HR people you want 85% of the doc salary - this is the type of thinking we all need to have!

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Salaried. I'm surgical hospitalist. I get a shift diff for the portions of my scheduled days that are early morning and late afternoon, but I can't adjust my timecard to reflect more than 80 hours in a pay period so I am never paid for extra hours, as it were. As far as your situation goes... I think it's understood in a salaried position that there will be times when you just do not get to leave "on time." If it's every single day that you're staying for 1.5 of your scheduled shifts, it's time to renegotiate somehow.

 

 

 

well put BUT realize that if you are salaried then their should be weeks you work LESS then the committment

 

look up truely what salaried is and you realize that you should have some time off with out being micromanaged for it...... but these days employers want to make you salary so they can work you 45-50 hours a week and pay for 40.... not acceptable in my book

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was salary, and working 50-60+hr work weeks. No bonus, no overtime, etc. My employer recently switched me to hourly at my same rate that my salary broke down to based on a 40hr work week. SO...instead of a bonus (like I asked for), they now pay me overtime, call pay, shift differentials, etc. They expect my pay to go from a set $118K per year to over $145K. I suspect it may be a bit more...but we'll see. Either way, for an ortho PA with 4 yrs experience, I feel like it's a good gig.

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I was salary, and working 50-60+hr work weeks. No bonus, no overtime, etc. My employer recently switched me to hourly at my same rate that my salary broke down to based on a 40hr work week. SO...instead of a bonus (like I asked for), they now pay me overtime, call pay, shift differentials, etc. They expect my pay to go from a set $118K per year to over $145K. I suspect it may be a bit more...but we'll see. Either way, for an ortho PA with 4 yrs experience, I feel like it's a good gig.

 

Nice. Enjoy.

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