5 Ways Employed Physicians Can Raise Their Salary Without Seeing More Patients or Working More Hours

2023-08-26 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7FXoxM6KLg Transcript YouTube English auto-captions. So, in this podcast episode, I want to talk to the majority of physicians that are out there and that those are the physicians who are employees. A study in 2022 says a supermajority of doctors are employed, 74% either through a hospital, a healthcare facility subtype where someone else is paying them to do work. And here at Bootstrap MD, we talk about being an entrepreneur, you being and becoming an investor. So, what is there for a physician employee to do? And I think what it comes down to is improving your own value. So, today, I want to talk about five ways that you can finally get paid what you're worth, strategies that you can take home to bring home a bigger paycheck on this episode of Bootstrap MD. Hey guys, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Welcome to another edition of Bootstrap MD. This is the podcast for physician and healthcare entrepreneurs. Today, I want to talk to the employed physician of which, as I said at the top, a majority of you are. And I know a number of you want to start your own business or you want to do investing, building multiple streams of income, but you feel shackled by uh what I refer to as the golden handcuffs, right? You know, where you're making a very nice salary, it's very difficult for you to even start thinking about, you know, a business, maybe do some investing. But there are some ways that you can do it is how can you generate more income for yourself? And really, there's three basic ways, right? You can work more hours. You can go from a 40-hour to a 60-hour week. That's one way that you can generate more revenue for you and your family. Uh you could see more patients. And I guess along with that is, you know, getting doing more procedures, doing more expensive procedures. That can bring home the bacon. But I don't want to talk about those because obviously those are pretty superficial ways that you can do it. I'm trying to teach you with to work smarter not harder. I'm not telling you to get certified in more procedures. I'm not telling you to get a degree that you probably are not even going to use. So, the third way is to actually get paid at a higher salary. You know, ask for a raise. And it's you know, that can be difficult for some doctors. You know, there's stories that are out that physicians, we are um making too much money anyway. You know, there was something I believe in the Wall Street Journal that came out recently and saying that majority of physicians are making over half a million dollars a year. Not sure if that's ac- accurate, but it is what it is. But it puts out to society that maybe we're we are overpaid. And and because of that, we often feel that we are devalued. We don't like selling, you know, um marketing ourselves or our selling ourselves. Most of us a lot of us may be uncomfortable asking for a raise. But I really want to talk about, you know, because society deems what is your worth. And I'm not saying that's the only way to do it, but they they determine your worth by your hourly rate, right? We got paid I got paid a certain I got paid minimum wage when I used to work at McDonald's when I was 16 years old. Um and then as I got older, I got I got, you know, a higher hourly rate. I'm not saying that you should determine your value by money, but that's what society um dictates to us. So, I want you to start thinking about like what is your hourly rate right now? How much you are are you actually making an hour? And why that hourly rate is often associated with your value. Now, I'm a big sports fan. I you know, NFL is a around the around around the corner next month they're going to start having games. I'm a big fan of the NBA as well. And if you know something about the NBA, you know there is a really uh tremendous NBA player who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. And I'm going to butcher his name but it is his name is Giannis Antetokounmpo. And he was the MVP a couple years ago. They won a championship a few years back. And he makes a lot of money as most superstars do. There's another person on the Milwaukee Bucks who is also last name is Antetokounmpo but it's his brother. And his brother is what they consider the 12th man. He's the one usually cheering from the bench. Doesn't get into a lot of games unless it's like a blowout, what they call garbage time. Uh and he gets a salary but it's much more minuscule than the the one of his brothers. Now, why is that? Well, obviously he is doing it because he is a very much more talented player. Uh Giannis is a much more talented player that than his brother. Um he's you know, been in All-Star games. He said he's the MVP. And why is he a value to to the team? Well, he helps them win more games unlike his brother who doesn't play off that much. So, there is obvi- there is obviously a direct correlation, right? To his what he gets paid and how much he is value to the team. Not only for just winning games, for sponsorships, for being an ambassador to the game, getting all of these uh endorsements, right? So, he has had more value to his team. And that's the first way that you can improve your value is just showing that you have improving your own worth, right? So, once you improve your own worth, showing you that you are a value to your organization. Therefore, thereby hopes that you're going to be paid more. So, that's actually the first one that we want to talk about is improving your own worth. Now, how do you How do you improve your own worth? That gets to my second way that you can improve your salary is becoming a better employee. Again, not a lot of this is rocket science, but I think there are some things that I'm going to talk about that might uh sway you or might might spark some creativity in what you're currently doing. Becoming a better employee. So, what does that mean? Maybe you're going to be coming in earlier than most of the other people. Maybe you're going to be staying later. Um and you're probably saying, you know, I'm already doing that. I'm already working more hours, but it has to be noticed by the people who are actually paying your paychecks. Is it making a difference in your bottom line? So, what can you do that can help get you more income? Well, you can buy talking to people who make a higher salary that you're that than you're currently doing. What did they do to get them into that position? So, talking with others, say, "Hey, you know, what What did you have What did you do?" Have a frank talk, you know, with with these folks and asking them, you know, what you know, were there certain committees that you had to join? Did you know, who are the ones that that are in charge of actually determining your salary? And then it comes time to actually having a frank talk with your employer. Ask them, you know, your higher-ups. He's like, "Hey, you know what? I want to be a value to this company. What do I need to do to get there? Um that could require you to take on more challenges, maybe require you to uh be involved in in some committees, but not just any committees. I'm not telling you just to have be on any type of committee. I'm just telling you what you could be of more value in terms of what they're looking for. Is it about helping the organization generate more revenue? That's probably the most obvious way that you could do that. Um you know, but you have to be noticed. Like I said, I was talking with uh someone recently. She was like, "I'm joining all of these committees, but it doesn't seem to make a big big difference in in terms of the bottom line." Well, it determines like what kind of committees that you are that are making difference. Are you on committees that could determine, you know, increase revenue for the practice or for the hospital? And that gets to my third way of having a change in your paycheck and increasing how much you're worth, and that is for you to learn new skills to benefit the company. So, what does your company need right now? If you're going to the meetings, you'll have a pretty good idea of what it is. They're looking to improve efficiencies, right? So, are there some classes or are there some courses that you can take that can help with that? One that I have in mind is I'm trying to learn everything about artificial intelligence because I think that is going to make a tremendous impact in our business and it already has. Uh is that something that you could learn to say, "Hey, I'm really taking this course. I've been learning artificial intelligence and I'm bringing it back here to our company because I want to learn about improving efficiencies. I want to learn about how AI might improve quality of care." And again, that might be something you may or may not want to take on, but that does show you, "Hey, that you're you have other skills than just being a clinician. Maybe you're going to want to work on working on contracts. Maybe you want to learn and become the expertise at at that at at, you know, getting contracts with your vendors or with the big insurance companies. Uh again, to the eyes, you know, hopefully they see this is that you are more than just seeing patients. And that's where I see, you know, doctors becoming administrators and end up having higher salaries because they are ready to take that on. I'm not saying you need to get an MBA. I know many doctors look at that as an advantage, but you don't really need an MBA to learn more about, you know, taking a class at, you know, Harvard online on or Stanford medicine offers courses on AI in medicine. Why Why can't you go ahead and and and do that? Uh so that's So that's one way. You're looking looking at different skills, anything but minimizing wasteful practices, efficiencies, revenue generation, participate in expanding your knowledge on services that can help you bring more revenue. Number four, the fourth way that you can make a difference in your income and improving what your worth is now not only learning new skills for your for your company, but to benefit yourself. I think every physician who is wants to increase their salary should take a class uh or learn skills in negotiation. You know, uh if you don't want to take classes, there are books out there. Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference. We're reading that in our mastermind group right now. Um this was a a book written by a uh hostage negotiator who has learned the skills in negotiation and he shares it with you. So for 15 bucks, you know, you can start learning about negotiation skills for your own paycheck. Is that something important? Because as learning all of these skills, how you're going to be bet being beneficial to your company. Another skill you may want to learn is mentoring, mentoring skills. Maybe you're going to you're going to take on mentors of of a you know, someone new to the organization, take them under your wing uh and helping give them to become a better employee. Maybe you are taking skills in leadership. That's very important, right? If you want to show that you are a value, they want to show that you're a leader, that you can manage other people. Uh that's going to be very important. Uh but it's something that you can not only use for your own company, it's something that you could use for yourself as well. And then that leads me to my final way how you can increase what you're worth leading to potentially an increased salary is leaving the company. And that's what happened with me. I mean, the last time I was actually employed by in corporate medicine was nearly 20 years ago. But I remember being on a lot of different committees, taking up uh some leadership roles. I was a member quality management committee where I had to talk with doctors who um were having some personal issues. I was urgent care director. Uh I was a nursing home director. Um not really seeing a big change in my salary and you they say, you know, uh the definition of insanity here is right is doing this different things and and um expecting or doing the same things and expecting a different result. And that's what happened to me. I definitely hit a ceiling of what I could do, you know, um I think because many of my colleagues were a lot older than I was. Uh maybe that played a role into it. I thought my quality of taking care of patients was was pretty good. Um but who knows what it is. And then till If feel like you've done like those top four things that I had mentioned and you're not getting anywhere, you're you're you're hitting that ceiling as well, maybe it is time to think about different pastures and you know, especially since COVID, there are a lot more different opportunities that you can practice medicine. You can go uh part-time, you can do locum tenens, you can do telemedicine, you can do different types of practices that don't involve um hospital work doing or if you're in the hospital, and maybe you want to do more outpatient. If you're outpatient, maybe you want to do more inpatient. There's so many things that you can do. You can work multiple part-time jobs if you want. I've seen that work at as well, you know. Uh the we talk about the golden handcuffs, you know, that doctors have. And you know, I think one of the probably the one of the worst things that I see is when doctors, they get paid just enough so that just enough money and and have just enough benefits and just enough some things that they add so you so you won't leave. And I think there a lot of corporations are really really good at doing that. But, you know, the way that I you know, was was trained to be in medicine, you know, I thought it was like and I'm probably dating myself. Um back when I was a kid, there was a show called the Marcus Welby where there was this family doctor and uh he would go and he would go to you know, in the community and he he'd get paid. Somebody gave him like a a fruit basket and and things like that. Um and you know, when I thought I I was working at some place that I was going to be there for the next 30 years, just didn't turn out to be that way. And now, there's so many ways that you can practice medicine. Gives you a lot more different opportunities uh that it is something to think about where, you know, if you are feeling that nothing is really getting accomplished. So, to sum up, those are kind of my five uh strategies that you can think of to hopefully get you get a pay raise and finally get paid what you're worth. So, one is just understanding what your worth is, two is becoming a better employee, three is just learning new skills to benefit the company, four is learning new skills to benefit yourself, and then five is follow through else leaving the company. So, I hope you got some benefit from that. Not a subject I know doctors money is not something we like to share, but I think because a number of you are employees, you feel that you can't there's no really way to go. I think it it first starts off by you know, making more money per hour, and then hopefully you could actually reduce the number of hours you work, then you can explore different avenues on investing, starting a business, learning to buy revenue generating assets, uh that help you make more money for you and your family, and keep moving you forward.