Experienced Ortho PA salary south Florida

[KrystalB]

I’m a PA with 11+ years of Ortho experience working in south Florida.  I always had the impression that I’d be making 150k by the time I was 10 years out and find myself only making 120k at 11 years out ($123,600 at 12 years if I get my 3% raise in October). 

My question to Ortho PA’s with 10+ years of experience practicing in south Florida is: what do you make? What are your hours? Do you work for a private practice or a hospital? 

I’m wondering if working for a private practice is the way to make better money...

FYI- I work for a hospital physician group where all PA’s and surgeons are employees of the hospital. I work 40-45 hours each week with no call or weekends.  Benefits include 22 days off for vaca/sick/CME in addition to 7 holidays; 403-b with matching up to a certain number; percentage of health insurance covered; short term disability; licensure and NCCPA dues covered. 

My autonomy is limited. All the patients I see are during my doc’s office hours and are billed under the doctor’s credentials (my doc and I see around 6k patients per year).  I am not able to see what my collections for surgery are. 

I keep specifying south Florida because we have a lot of PA schools and we have a high transplant rate (People want to move here to work) so I suspect the new grads and transplants drive the market price for a PA down... not sure.  Maybe I’m just working in the wrong place?

thanks to all for reading this far

[marktheshark89]

Its probably that you are in florida like you said. 123k in florida takes you farther than 150k alot of places. Also unless the doctor is seeing each and everyone of your patients, billing should be under your name. Otherwise this is likely fraudulent. 

[PACJD]

5 hours ago, KrystalB said:

working in south Florida

That is why you aren't making that 150k at 11 years. Florida (esp South Florida) is notoriously low for PA salary (or for any salary that is). Up in the northeast a former classmate of mine works in ortho with 10 years experience making 140k/yr with 20% collection bonus. Another PA I know has 15 years under his belt and is making 165k/yr. 

Ortho is a money-maker, especially with experience. But if you prefer living in Florida you have to be willing to take the 20k pay cut. Like you said, many PA schools and high saturation. 

[Fernwood]

I would make a correction to the statement "ortho is a money-maker".  "Ortho was a money maker". Having worked as a PA in orthopedic surgery for nearly 20 years my peak earning years were nearly 10 years ago. Ever decreasing reimbursement coupled with increased overhead have put the squeeze on orthopedic surgeons. Couple this with the fact that orthopedic surgeons are notoriously poor business men. This has had a trickle-down effect on  PA salaries. My salary was capped years ago and then they began whittling away at bonuses. All this despite increasing revenues by the PAs. One physician surgeon was quoted as telling his PA, "But I need that money". I would estimate that most orthopedic groups will be hospital owned in the next 10 years, if not already so. This will cap PA salaries in the $110K range with essentially no bonus. I have watch the de-evolution of the PA role to include salaries over the past 10 years and would give a simple bit of advice to anyone looking at becoming a PA, reconsider.

[AbeTheBabe]

Depends where you are. I'm nearly 3 years out making 125K in ortho in LA. This is a much high cost of living area than south Florida and it also sounds like your benefits are better, although I have more autonomy and see my own patients. We get bonus based on collections and I'm on the low end, a coworker that is a lot busier than I am is making close to 150K. However, there are hospitals that pay big too. I know for a fact I'd be making ($80/hour + overtime $$$ at Kaiser). PAs can easily clear 200K. Hospital PA without bonus doesn't necessarily mean low pay.