New Grad Cardiothoracic Surgery advice please

[kpatel4]

Just wanted to get advice on how the offer looks as this would be my first job out of school. It's an offer at a well established Cardiothoracic and Vascular group in Louisiana.

 

Base salary: $90,000, exempt employee (base salary will compensate for all work performed)

 

Duties: 1st assist, EVH, no clinic, M-F 6:30 am until work is completed for the day, round on weekends the days you are on call, work at 3 hospitals, make rounds after hours

 

Call: Rotate weeknight and weekend call with PAs. Right now have 8 PAs. I would be 9th. Possibility of 1-2 PAs leaving by the time I would start

 

Retirement: 401k eligible after 1 year. Group contributes 3% (safe harbor contribution), match 60% of compensation that I defer up to 7.5% of gross compensation

 

Professional liability insurance: 100% paid, if terminated no extended reporting endorsement will be purchased by the group

 

Health: will pay majority of premium

Dental: will make available voluntary coverage

Longer term disability, short term disability and life insurance: 100% paid by group

 

Vacation/professional meetings: 20 paid days/vacation meetings in 1st Year, professional meeting days taken from vacation days, 1 additional vacation day per year of employment max of 10 additional day; will pay all pre-approved expenses, subject to amounts, associated with attendance of 1 professional or seminar per year (I've been told $2500 for CME specifically); only 1 PA allowed on vacation at a time (only exception are national conferences or other approved meetings)

 

Personal leave: 1 day

 

Sick leave: 7 days (does not carry over)

 

Professional dues: all membership fees to remain in good standing with profession and dues for memberships required for local hospitals or liability carrier covered by group

 

Thanks in advance! Good luck to everyone.

[crossbone2007]

90K is low as an exempt employee.

"6:30 AM until work is completed for the day" could mean you can go home early or late, mostly​ late. They will work you like a horse IMO. There should be a limit to how many hours you work per shift.

M-F 6: 30 AM until work is completed????? how late is that? Is that a typo? How many hours a week your are expected to work?

And you don't even have full benefits.

I don't know how is the market in Louisiana but you're being taken advantage of.

First, for such a low base, you should not be exempt employee.

You should be paid for call and all hours worked above 40 hrs a week.

 

I say continue to look.

 

 

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[kpatel4]

@crossbone2007

 

I spoke with some of the PAs in regards to when the day typically ends. On average they end the day around 3 pm. Sometimes earlier. Sometimes later. What do you mean that I don't have full benefits? What would be a reasonable base salary and other items I should counter with?

 

Thanks.

[crossbone2007]

By full benefits i meant full health/dental. May not matter if you only contribute little.

I would counter with 95.

If you take 90k divided by 2080 hrs/yr. The salary rate is $43.26/hr. @ 95k, you would be at $45.67/hr.

Again, its all depends on cost of living, market saturation, etc

 

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[kpatel4]

Thanks. Any other things that I should consider before countering? Anything I should ask specifically or ask to have in writing prior to accepting an offer?

[SedRate]

Why are the other 1-2 PAs leaving?

 

They are very stingy with their PTO. Take professional meetings from PTO? What constitutes as a "professional meeting?" Also, only one PA on vacation at a time might get a little annoying when trying to coordinate with 6-7 colleagues.

 

$90k is low for CTS. Try for $100k.

 

Also, what about EVH training? On the job?

[kpatel4]

Not sure why the PA(s) are leaving. I plan on finding this out some how. Is it reasonable to ask that professional meeting days are paid for separately and not taken from PTO? I will ask for clarification on "professional meeting". EVH training will be provided on the job. Can anyone point me in the right direction for salaries for CTS PAs? Any links?

[SedRate]

If professional meetings include CME courses or conferences, then I could see why they take it out of PTO. You can request dedicated PTO just for that, such as 5 days.

 

As for salaries, I'm not sure what the going rate is currently. CTS typically pays higher. You could check out APACVS to see if there is any insight.

[kpatel4]

Thank you for the advice. If anyone else has input, it would be greatly appreciated.

[scott079]

Hi,

 

I am a pre-PA student with a big interest in CT surg, so please don't consider me as an expert or my opinion as knowledge. 

 

I spoke with a recruiter after shadowing a CT surg PA, this recruiter specializes in CT PA jobs. He attended the last conference for apacvs. He claimed that at the conference he was told there are only 800 "proficient" EVH PA's in the country. His words, not mine. If this is true, your learning a valuable skill set, so maybe this is a starter job. Either way, best of luck with your first job, I am sure its an exciting time for you.

[kpatel4]

Thanks for the advice. Another question I have is in regards to malpractice insurance. The group pays for claims based insurance but doesn't cover tail coverage. How much does this usually cost? And is it worth getting my own malpractice to see if they will cover costs for it? Thanks.

[seekingtruths]

Strongly recommend asking them for tail coverage. That is typically a standard offering and to my knowledge CTS has among the highest frequency of malpractice suits compared to other specialties. You need to be covered after employment ends. I'm not sure how much tail costs but it's probably at least a few grand if not more.

[MyNameWasUsed]

man what is with all these bad offers lately