A Good CV Is Powerful: Increasing Compensation In Physician Employment Offers

While a great many factors go into the strength of a physician employment contract, one that is typically of utmost importance is the salary offered.  When you've spent years and years in residency, fellowship (and maybe you're even out there practicing already), you deserve the compensation that your qualifications have earned.  One way to demonstrate to employers just how valuable an asset you are, is your CV.  Sounds simple and obvious, right? Well, it may be, but CVs are often neglected and under-developed. A great CV not only includes all of the obvious content such as education, training, prior work experience, and publications, but it should also include those items that you, yourself, may not pay much mind to when thinking of your accomplishments.  When properly linked together and displayed within your CV, these, perhaps minor, achievements can add up to higher compensation, and certainly a higher regard paid to you by potential employers.

For instance, be sure to include all awards, speaking engagements, poster presentations, and any research project involvement you've had.  It is also important to include the professional organizations you belong to, and all volunteer work you have done- medical and otherwise.  Such added items not only increase your value in the eyes of your potential employers, but they also give employers the justification they may need in order to compensate you at a level higher than what similarly-trained physicians may be paid.

Last, but not least, the placement of special accomplishments or experiences may be the difference in why you receive an offer, and someone else does not.  If you have a particularly unique and impressive experience in your life, no matter how random, chances are good that a potential employer will find your experience to be intriguing and impressive as well.  As long as your CV remains professional and polished, if it contains a "stand-out" element, you will have served yourself well as someone the employer is not likely to soon forget.

Privademics: Finding the Happy Medium

For many physicians who have been through a long and labor-intensive residency, when the time comes to search for their first job, the question of whether to go the private or academic route naturally presents itself.  Many residencies require physicians to complete significant research projects before they can "graduate" and others require constant journal reading and other studying on a weekly basis.  So it comes as no surprise that by the time residency is finally over, many physicians are ready to have a break from the academic world.  However, they may not be ready to put the world of research behind them entirely.  Many physicians leaving their training would also like to remain in the teaching world, full of residents and fellows.  With this thought in mind, I was delighted to hear the term "privademics" recently. A "privademic" practice naturally offers many physicians an ideal balance by including autonomy in their practice, and avoiding the sometimes large bureaucratic processes of large academic centers.  It also offers financial and other support to physicians who are eager to remain in the research loop of their specialties.  Many of these practices even boast their own residency and fellowship programs.

"Privademic" practices are found across the country, and unlike smaller private practices, are more likely to withstand the pressures that are so commonly placed on private groups these days to sell out to hospitals.  Privademic practices are typically larger groups, and many even own their own hospitals and surgery centers, depending on their specialty, the laws of the state in which they are located, and how long the group has been in existence.  Privademic practices are also more likely to have the resources necessary to stay on top of the ever-changing reimbursement landscape, planning carefully for the advent of bundled payments and Accountable Care Organizations ("ACOs").

For those of you who are recent residency graduates, and are somewhat unsure of whether private or academic practice is right for you, check around for some of the leading privademic practices that exist.

Physician Contract Reviews: Keys to a Good Deal

In my years as a health care lawyer, I have reviewed many physician employment contracts for clients. I have also worked for hospitals and other employers in drafting the offers they make to physicians. This experience has given me the benefit of knowing both sides' angles in this process. After a long and laborious job search process, the acceptance of a physician's first employment offer is often a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, not only do many physicians take the first set of terms offered to them, but many physicians do not seek legal advice at all.  After seeing how incredibly different the second version of a contract can be from the first, I cannot urge physicians enough to hire someone to do this important work on their behalf.

The makings of a good and fair physician employment contract include balanced terms, fair market value compensation, and benefits such as health, life and disability insurance, and reimbursement for various typical business expenses. Of course this list is not inclusive, but only mentions some of the points a physician lawyer will be looking for when reviewing an employment agreement.

The "take-home" point for physicians, especially those straight out of residency or fellowship, is that having a legal review of your employment offer will pay for itself many times over.  New physicians often don't take advantage of the bargaining power they have, and a formal legal review can provide exponential benefits.

Physicians, Pro Athletes, & Musicians Alike- All Benefit From an Agent

I founded Lauth O'Neill Physician Agency because my professional and personal experiences taught me there is a need for physician agents.  Not only do physicians benefit from having someone in their corner, looking out for their interests, but they also need a "go to" person who can take on many of the tedious tasks that come in searching for a new job.

In my experience as a health care attorney, and combined with being married to a physician, I have naturally crossed paths with many physicians.  Many of them are at the beginning of their careers, and once they receive a job offer, they often ask me if it is necessary to have a lawyer look at the employment agreement.  My answer is always a resounding "YES!" And often times, I perform the legal analysis myself.  I have worked on both sides of physician employment.  And after serving hospitals and other group practices as my clients, I am acutely aware of what employers do to make a physician employment contract extremely favorable to themselves.  This, of course, often means the contract is unfavorable to the physician in certain ways.  Not to mention, they almost never offer compensation and benefits at the levels trained physicians can expect based on national benchmark data. So yes, the need for physicians to have their employment offers reviewed by a lawyer has always been very clear to me.

What I had not experienced until recently was the immense amount of time and effort that goes into finding and securing a physician's ideal employment arrangement.  In assisting my husband in his recent job search, I gained an intimate understanding of numerous steps that go into a successful physician job search.  First, locating the opportunities that fit your professional desires, then communicating with the potential employers to let them know you're interested and qualified, and interviewing multiple times with the same folks- this is only the beginning of the process.  Once an offer is made, then the hours spent on this task really start to climb.  Physicians not only need a legal review of each offer completed, but they must also endure what seems to be endless back-and-forth with the potential employers to ensure they receive the compensation, benefits, and terms they have earned.

In talking with my husband's colleagues about the trials and tribulations of their job search processes, the rhetorical question has often been posed: "Can't I just pay someone to do this for me?"  I only had to hear that question once before I recognized the need for physician agents.

As a physician agent, it is my goal to do all that is necessary to make my clients' job search not only successful, but as little of a burden to them as possible.  Therefore, I provide our Premier Opportunity service so that physicians can simply tell me what sort of job they are looking for, and in what region, and I will go to work finding their options.  Seeing the physician's job search process through to the end, the Premier Opportunity service includes every crucial step that allows physicians to find and shape their ideal employment arrangement.  I am excited to make each next clients' success my priority.