It is possible, but only if you are in the right place at the right time. If you are a well known sportsdoc or spine surgeon and have athletes/patients shipped to you from around the country and you own everthing, like the surgery center, etc..., then it's possible to make that type of coin. However, this is only possible for a small select few orthopods who have been in practice for a long time. To come out and try to make that now would be very hard unless you are making money in other ways (imaging, physical therapy, surgery center, etc...) The economic model in medicine right now, makes this hard to do. As the cost of providing care goes up, our reimbursement at all levels is going down. Eventually, the two lines will cross and it will be chaos. So I suspect there will have to be major changes in the healthcare market sometime in the next ten years.

I know of two academic orthopedists at a Philadelphia hospital that make $10 million plus a year. I know of a good amount of others in this area that are easily over $1 million a year. So yes, it is possible.

Did those same two guys tell you they have 18 inches as well ??? I'm just giving you sh_t, but I find it hard to believe 2 guys in one area could make 10 million a year, and then have all these other mil a year guys running around. You sure it wasn't A.I. you were talking to and he just said he was an orthopod so you'd think he was smart ??

I'm sure it wasn't A.I. Let's just say I am 100% certain that both surgeons I am talking about make in that neighborhood. Their take home pay is obviously less than their gross pay (malpractice, overhead, employees), but they still do far better than the average joe. The funny thing is that they both work at the same hospital

If I made over a million dollars a year, I would never see my wife and kids. I suspect that if an academic orthopod makes ten million a year, it is due to patents, product royalties etc... It's hard to funnel enough patients through to make that type of dough unless you rely on multiple residents/fellows and run multiple surgical rooms.

It's hard to funnel enough patients through to make that type of dough unless you rely on multiple residents/fellows and run multiple surgical rooms.

*cough*

I know exactly who you're talking about...and Orthodoc is correct. These guys have designed most of their own hardware which pays tons of royalties. They also are paid tons of cash to fly all over the world and speak to colleagues. It's not just patient care. These guys are great businessmen on top of being excellent surgeons.

Ok this is not classified info. His name is Richard Rothman and he's at Jefferson. 2 years ago he pulled in a net 8 million in one year. His partners make well over 2 mill a year. He runs 6 rooms for joints with chief in each room and it's a joint factory with about 30 joints done a day. The other guy is Robert Booth...he also works in Philly and does joints in 20-30 minutes with multiple OR's running. It's true. Patents I don't know about.

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Product royalties might be the only way to rack up 1 M a year in the future. Frankly, what is a real difference in your life if you make only 400K/year instead of 1 M/year?

So, just out of curiosity, what is a reasonable salary to expect in orthopedics? Obviously is will vary by region and sub-specialty, but just hit me with a ballpark figure for both academic and private practice. I have looked at various online physician income surveys and the figures are all over the map. 'Just remember, you will probably only have to deal with butt-puss for your intern year', --'Flute

Ok this is not classified info. His name is Richard Rothman and he's at Jefferson. 2 years ago he pulled in a net 8 million in one year. His partners make well over 2 mill a year. He runs 6 rooms for joints with chief in each room and it's a joint factory with about 30 joints done a day. The other guy is Robert Booth...he also works in Philly and does joints in 20-30 minutes with multiple OR's running. It's true. Patents I don't know about.

Actually, the other guy is Alex Vaccaro. He makes more than both Rothman and Booth. But like I said, there are about two handfuls of people in this area that I know of in Philly that make $1 million plus. BTW, the Rothman-Hozack-Sharkey-Purtill group does about 90 joints a week Also, Rothman made a killing when the Rothman Institute went public and he owned more than half of the stock. 'Flute, I think it all depends on how much you want to operate in private practice and how much you want to research on top of that for academics. Like any other field, its highly variable, but I know that the average city orthopedist makes about $350-400k a year. -Bob

Your actual income is also going to be affected by several factors related to geography, medical climate, etc. Malpractice insurance will vary a lot depending on where you live. In Philadelphia, rates have risen to $150K - $250K per year for most docs and are higher for the busiest ones. Insurance in the South is substantially less, so even though you may make $75K less, your insurance may be more than $100K less. Certain areas have maybe? too many docs, including New York. I have heard several stories of how it is not uncommon for people in NYC to seek 3rd+ opinions, so one has to see as many pts as possible to be able to fill up the OR schedule. Some areas of the country, including parts of the South and Midwest, are recruiting orthos to practice in their area, and starting income in practices may be substantially higher. There are a hundred more arguments for pros and cons for each situation, but the bottom line is that a higher salary does not necessarily translate into higher net income, let also piece of mind.