Cardiology job offer help!

[oreocow]

Howdy all!

 

I'm in need of some advice regarding a recent job offer...To give you a little background, I've been practicing for 3 years and have a Neurosurg/ED/Paramedic background. I'm currently practicing in PM&R but am potentially being poached by an interventional cardiologist (which I'm not opposed to, given the right circumstances)...

 

Here are some of the job specifics:

Practice location: North Texas (Dallas/FW area)

 

Essentially, I would be traveling to different SNF and LTACH facilities and doing cardiology consults (at least initially - I could take acute hospital consults later on, if I want to - which I do). I have been offered either a salary position or independent contractor position which pays per patient seen (I'm leaning towards independent contractor).

 

I would be able to make my own hours and see as many or as few patients as I want to. I would also have to take call (every 3rd weekend) but that only entails being available by phone (no weekend rounding). They have also guaranteed me a 20 patient minimum daily load.

 

As an independent contractor, I would have to pay for most everything (health insurance, taxes, etc...). The doc has offered to pay for my malpractice though (he would add me to his claims made policy but I would have to pay for my own tail coverage).

 

Here's what they have offered as far as payment:

Follow up patient visits: $20 per patient

New patient visits: $25 per patient

 

After crunching the numbers with the minimum patient load, the pay seems on the low side, in my opinion...I'm thinking that I'd like to see $30-40 for follow up visits and $40-50 for new patients...is that realistic or am I just delusional? :;;D:

 

Can ya'll shed some light on this for me? Is anyone in a similar situation? Is the pay par for the region? For you independent contractors out there getting paid per patient, are ya'll getting paid as a flat fee per patient or as a percentage of what is billed? It's hard to find any salary comparisons because it seems that most cardiology positions are either hospital and/or clinic based and not mobile as this position is....

 

Any advice/information you could share would be very much appreciated!!

[rudypa]

Probably want to move this to Contracts forum.....you'll get more of a response I would say

[Houstonian]

How much time do you think it should take you to do a follow-up visit? How much time do you think it will take you to do a new patient consult? How much time will it take you to travel from one facility to another? What will the mix be of established vs. new patients? What kind of physician supervision do you expect to have?

 

The $25 for a new patient evaluation seems ridiculously low to me. A lot of these patients are going to be very complex. Have you researched what the Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement rate is? A lot of SNF patients are Medicaid--notoriously low reimbursement rates.