MisterIndubitably Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 Hello! I am newly graduated and have been offered a position with a family medicine practice in CA. They have two other PAs and three NPs. The practice is university affiliated so there are plenty of docs around to ask questions and learn from. The chair is very in favor of PAs and wants the clinic to be enrolled as a Patient Center Medical Home. He wants the PAs to take the reigns with the docs. I did my family rotation here with the senior PA. It is a 4 minute drive from home!! The flow and patient load was good. He saw 20-22 patients per 8 hour day. Below is the offer. Salary: 85K (5K sign-on bonus) with ever-green contract Vacation: 4 weeks CME time: 2 weeks Sick time: 2 weeks Retirement: 403b. The company contributes 13% of annual salary whether you personally contribute or not. Vested 20% every year. At year 5, 100% vested (11,050 x 5 = 55,250). CME fund: 4K. License, fees and memberships are supposed to come out of this. I am trying to change that. Medical/vision/dental: 60% covered premium Malpractice paid: occurrence Term life insurance: Can buy more coverage at 0.20 cents per extra $1000 Reimbursement is based on RVUs. They say each patient is ideally 15 dollars. I will have 3-6 months at 6-10 patients a day. During this period, they will meet with me daily and weekly to check up on my progress. After that, they say I should see about 18 per day to cover my salary and anything extra is added on. They don't really have a bonus structure. There is also the option to be trained in laser and cosmetics. The payment thing is a little wacky but other than that it feels like a good start for a new grad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paula Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 You can't beat the 4 minute drive from home. You will save lots of commuting time and costs. I think the starting salary is a little low, but if you get good training and mentoring, and the ability to earn a bonus is a plus. Learning a new skill with laser and cosmetics will help keep you diversified with a specialty within a FP clinic. The benefits look fair. You have 2 things going for you: Location and supportive practice environment. Let us know what you decide. What is an ever- green contract? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpackelly Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Almost no place offers a 13% match for retirement. If you can hang there for five years you are golden. Worth the slightly low starting salary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted August 9, 2015 Administrator Share Posted August 9, 2015 Almost no place offers a 13% match for retirement. If you can hang there for five years you are golden. Worth the slightly low starting salary. It's not a match, it's a 403b where the employer contributes 13% of the employee's salary, regardless of what the employee contributes. MUCH better than a 1:1 match, with the exception that you only vest 20% per year, so you have to stay 5 years to get the whole pie. This is a very typical defined contribution plan in the tech sector. The rub is that if you contribute more pre-tax, while you are vested in that amount right away, you get no company match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric130 Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 That is an awesome benefit with a 13% contribution. I would take the offer just for that if you felt like you would learn a lot and it is a good environment. When I was working in IR they offered 18% of salary contribution, it was the only position I have had that our retirement benefit was as good as the MDs. Seems like most typical is 3-5%, at my current company it is 3%, pretty sucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 The base salary is low but the benefits look exceptional and this may improve with the bonus structure as you get up to speed. Do you get paid less than base while you are working up to 18 pts? That would be a no go in my mind. With a 4 min drive, it seems like a nice job if you enjoyed rotating there and can stay at least 5 years to be fully vested. That is a lot in the way of cme funds. You would be better served by arguing for something else than separate license/fee coverage. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrsmurf Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Whether the base salary is low, really depends on your location in CA (how saturated/metropolitan the area is). $85k is OK, but I'd bet you'd be able to get $90k with a counter-offer. The retirement and CME benefits are amazing, however, you should consider that most new grad PA's don't stick with their first job for the long term. 4 min commute is also awesome (less gas, home to lunch, more free time, etc). I've never been on a RVU pay system, so I can't comment on that. For a first job, sounds pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterIndubitably Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 You can't beat the 4 minute drive from home. You will save lots of commuting time and costs. I think the starting salary is a little low, but if you get good training and mentoring, and the ability to earn a bonus is a plus. Learning a new skill with laser and cosmetics will help keep you diversified with a specialty within a FP clinic. The benefits look fair. You have 2 things going for you: Location and supportive practice environment. Let us know what you decide. What is an ever- green contract? This is basically my overall view of the offer and position. One of my teachers worked here also and mentioned that the learning environment is the best you can get. They are very family orientated and believe in balancing work with home life. The ever-green contract is a "self renewing" contract. The contract stays the same until either the employer or employee want to terminate the agreement. Then there is a 60 days notice required by both parties. Basically not having to sign a new contract every fiscal year. This does not include raises or salary changes. That requires new contractual agreements. To be honest, I will most likely take it. Almost no place offers a 13% match for retirement. If you can hang there for five years you are golden. Worth the slightly low starting salary. I know! I did the math for 5 years with a max contribution on my end (my wife wants to work one more year so we'll have extra for debt) and in five years I can have roughly 180K put away. It's not a match, it's a 403b where the employer contributes 13% of the employee's salary, regardless of what the employee contributes. MUCH better than a 1:1 match, with the exception that you only vest 20% per year, so you have to stay 5 years to get the whole pie. This is a very typical defined contribution plan in the tech sector. The rub is that if you contribute more pre-tax, while you are vested in that amount right away, you get no company match. I need to ask about whether the contribution will decrease with my own personal contribution. They made it sound like it doesn't. I have a little bit of reading to do on 403b and how they have changed from being a "tax shelter". Nonetheless, I think I am okay with hanging for five years. I have the option to transfer to a satellite site if the option becomes available. That is an awesome benefit with a 13% contribution. I would take the offer just for that if you felt like you would learn a lot and it is a good environment. When I was working in IR they offered 18% of salary contribution, it was the only position I have had that our retirement benefit was as good as the MDs. Seems like most typical is 3-5%, at my current company it is 3%, pretty sucky. That is one of my main take aways from the offer. The learning environment is pretty uncanny. I learned more on my rotation than I would have ever imagined. The docs love science of medicine and geek out fairly often. They don't feel bothered when I or my PA preceptor needed a second opinion. Everyone is pretty laid back minus the few outliers that just don't understand PAs in the clinic setting. Oh well. The base salary is low but the benefits look exceptional and this may improve with the bonus structure as you get up to speed. Do you get paid less than base while you are working up to 18 pts? That would be a no go in my mind. With a 4 min drive, it seems like a nice job if you enjoyed rotating there and can stay at least 5 years to be fully vested. That is a lot in the way of cme funds. You would be better served by arguing for something else than separate license/fee coverage. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk I do not get paid less if I don't hit my RVUs to coverage my salary. They basically say they will come to you and see where things can be improved. In speaking with staff members, they really work with you to make you successful. They also have a ton of EMR powerusers if that is the issue. I need to flesh this out one more time to understand the exact numbers. The lawyer okayed the contract as it is. Whether the base salary is low, really depends on your location in CA (how saturated/metropolitan the area is). $85k is OK, but I'd bet you'd be able to get $90k with a counter-offer. The retirement and CME benefits are amazing, however, you should consider that most new grad PA's don't stick with their first job for the long term. 4 min commute is also awesome (less gas, home to lunch, more free time, etc). I've never been on a RVU pay system, so I can't comment on that. For a first job, sounds pretty good. Yes. Overall I like everything they are offering. If the RVUs play out the way I am understanding, I can make more by seeing more patients. That is future me problem though. For where the clinic is located, the cost of living is much lower than most of So Cal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted August 10, 2015 Moderator Share Posted August 10, 2015 take it! as a new grad this sounds like a great position with ALL THREE things of a great job pay, teaching, location I also say push hard for more on first hire, before you are hired, but I would not push to hard as that sounds like a more then fair deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrsmurf Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 This is basically my overall view of the offer and position. One of my teachers worked here also and mentioned that the learning environment is the best you can get. They are very family orientated and believe in balancing work with home life. The ever-green contract is a "self renewing" contract. The contract stays the same until either the employer or employee want to terminate the agreement. Then there is a 60 days notice required by both parties. Basically not having to sign a new contract every fiscal year. This does not include raises or salary changes. That requires new contractual agreements. To be honest, I will most likely take it. I know! I did the math for 5 years with a max contribution on my end (my wife wants to work one more year so we'll have extra for debt) and in five years I can have roughly 180K put away. I need to ask about whether the contribution will decrease with my own personal contribution. They made it sound like it doesn't. I have a little bit of reading to do on 403b and how they have changed from being a "tax shelter". Nonetheless, I think I am okay with hanging for five years. I have the option to transfer to a satellite site if the option becomes available. That is one of my main take aways from the offer. The learning environment is pretty uncanny. I learned more on my rotation than I would have ever imagined. The docs love science of medicine and geek out fairly often. They don't feel bothered when I or my PA preceptor needed a second opinion. Everyone is pretty laid back minus the few outliers that just don't understand PAs in the clinic setting. Oh well. I do not get paid less if I don't hit my RVUs to coverage my salary. They basically say they will come to you and see where things can be improved. In speaking with staff members, they really work with you to make you successful. They also have a ton of EMR powerusers if that is the issue. I need to flesh this out one more time to understand the exact numbers. The lawyer okayed the contract as it is. Yes. Overall I like everything they are offering. If the RVUs play out the way I am understanding, I can make more by seeing more patients. That is future me problem though. For where the clinic is located, the cost of living is much lower than most of So Cal. Is this a UCLA associated clinic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterIndubitably Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Cbrsmurf I sent you a private message Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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