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Dermatology Salary with no Dermatology experience


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To all the Dermatology  PA,

I have work retail medicine for 7 years.  I had a dermatology interview recently.  They offer general and cosmetic derm care, Mohs surgery.  They said that they usually pay brand new PA $70K during training then $90K post training and possibly no benefits.  I currently make $140k.  I understand that derm is hard to break into with no derm experience.  But isn’t that too low?  They will train me 4-6 month, no scribing, and will work me in slowly to see 35 patients a day.  No scribing?  I do have a second interview at a different practice in 3 days.  Any thoughts? 
 

Thanks!!!

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  • 100k min for your license - period, no less (unless you absolutely must but you cheapen PA's everywhere by taking less)
  • must be productivity after training
  • training period - yup seems to be an ongoing thing in derm - I would say agree only to a brief one, and they can schedule simple f/u initially
  • 100% access to all you billings and collections

 

No Benefits is a deal breaker - need health, PTO, CME, Vacation, Sick, 

 

If they hire a doc they are looking at 300k easy - don't do something for < 1/3 that....

 

STRONGLY market that you are not a new grad, are comfortable, tell them you make almost 150k now but are committed to to learning derm and taking a SMALL pay cut to do so...

 

 

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40 minutes ago, ventana said:
  • 100k min for your license - period, no less (unless you absolutely must but you cheapen PA's everywhere by taking less)
  • must be productivity after training
  • training period - yup seems to be an ongoing thing in derm - I would say agree only to a brief one, and they can schedule simple f/u initially
  • 100% access to all you billings and collections

 

No Benefits is a deal breaker - need health, PTO, CME, Vacation, Sick, 

 

If they hire a doc they are looking at 300k easy - don't do something for < 1/3 that....

 

STRONGLY market that you are not a new grad, are comfortable, tell them you make almost 150k now but are committed to to learning derm and taking a SMALL pay cut to do so...

 

 

I agree. As much as I want to transition into dermatology, $70K and no bennies is a slap in the face.  RNs make $70K more. I have no derm experience but definitely not a new PA.  I’m comfortable in the clinical setting.  I have experience treating common skin conditions just not basal / squamous cell/melanoma, etc.  There’s no way I can survive at $70-$90K.  And no bennies???!!!  Thank you for your input!

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2 hours ago, ventana said:

If they hire a doc they are looking at 300k

$300k in derm?  I thought they made significantly more than that...

But $70k is awful...and with no benefits it is more like $55-60k...

$70k even WITH benefits is terrible, including family medicine/pediatrics (generally the two lowest paying areas of medicine) 

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12 minutes ago, mgriffiths said:

$300k in derm?  I thought they made significantly more than that...

But $70k is awful...and with no benefits it is more like $55-60k...

$70k even WITH benefits is terrible, including family medicine/pediatrics (generally the two lowest paying areas of medicine) 

I have an interview with another derm practice in a few days. Curious to see what they will offer.  

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20 minutes ago, MT2PA said:

Pretty sure scribing here relates to either being treated as or having a scribe, not PREscribing medications.

The officer manger emailed me this when I asked about EMR.  Not sure what he mean by ‘admin time is minimal’.


3. Are you guys using EMR to chart? Yes, we use Modernizing Medicine's EMA software. There is no scribing involved so your admin time is minimal.

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13 minutes ago, TXkhmerPa said:

The officer manger emailed me this when I asked about EMR.  Not sure what he mean by ‘admin time is minimal’.


3. Are you guys using EMR to chart? Yes, we use Modernizing Medicine's EMA software. There is no scribing involved so your admin time is minimal.

Mod Med EMA offers lots of boxes to click and helps codes the visit for you based on what you click, so little actual typing and time spent coding is required. It's a great system and intuitive but can be convoluted. 

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39 minutes ago, Sed said:

Mod Med EMA offers lots of boxes to click and helps codes the visit for you based on what you click, so little actual typing and time spent coding is required. It's a great system and intuitive but can be convoluted. 

If I click on a diagnosis will it open up Different treatment/drug options?

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Something like that, yeah. It's intuitive and easy to use once you get the hang of it, especially with ICD10. It'll give you different procedures to choose from with certain diagnoses. For example, if I clicked a fracture dx, it would give me various treatment options like nonop fracture care, surgery, etc.

I used Athena prior to that and it required a little bit more work on my end, especially for coding and billing aspects.

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Take it.  Take it. Take it.

 

Breaking into Derm is hellahard.  If you have a job offer...just about ANY job offer willing to train you???  Good grief.  Suck it up for 2 years, get the experience then leave and go make $200k.  

I mean jesh guys....beggers can't be choosers.  I don't know where you are, but trying to break into derm as a PA in Texas is almost impossible without experience.  If you have the chance to get your foot in the door for $70k...consider it a residency and jump on it.

I would consider yourself lucky.

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10 hours ago, Cideous said:

...get the experience then leave and go make $200k

I'm not sure how frequently that continues to occur.  I know of multiple anecdotal stories of derm groups basically restructuring income for their PA/NPs and saying take it or leave it.  Why pay a PA/NP $200k when you can pay a new grad $70k for 1-2 years and then increase to a half-way decent salary of $100k-$120k and the employees are THRILLED?  It was all anecdotal until the largest derm group local to me did it about 6 months ago.  Two good PA friends of mine basically were presented with: take a 50-60% pay cut or take a hike.  They both chose to "take a hike" and basically retire.  Yeah, the derm group had a significant drop in productivity almost immediately, but after 6+ months they are pretty much back to full production.  In the long haul whoever owns that practice has increased their profits substantially as they employ 8 PA/NPs (that I'm aware of) and that equates to ~$800k in excess profit simply by decreasing salaries.  The two PAs I know moonlight at a few UCs a few times per month.  They're only big concern is health insurance, as without employer paid it is EXPENSIVE...the craziest thing is that one of them has actually figured out that if he stops moonlighting he can qualify for medicaid...

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