How much money I make as a family doctor
I’ve seen a trends recently where different professionals discuss their incomes in the interests of salary transparency. This took off in computer science but less so in medicine, where doctors are notoriously secretive about their income. So here’s a break down off my income, in the hopes of seeing similar posts from others in health care.
My practice
I’m family doctor who practices in Montreal in Canada. I do mostly long term follow up of chronic conditions and some minor emergencies in walk in (we call it walk in but people need appointments). I work inside a single payer system, so I’m paid by the governments on a (mostly) fee for service schedule — more on that later. I’m not allowed to bill the patient directly for services that are covered by the government insurance, which is pretty much every thing except for filling out some forms.
I work inside a clinic alongside other doctors. Everyone works mostly by themselves but we must collectively assure that weekends are covered.
My income
I’m paid by the government owned and run public health insurance called RAMQ in Quebec. I have about 1000 patients that I follow for which I’m paid a rostering fee of about $7 000 CAD every 3 months for a yearly total of about $28 000. This is whether I see the patient or not but is usually a compensation for paperwork involved in their follow-up — renewing meds basically. Overall, I work 4 days a week at the clinic and 1 day of paperwork from home for about 40 hours a week.
My main source of income is the fee for service — I’m paid about $50 to $60 per patient per visit, sometimes up to $100 based on the complexity and the time spent with the patient. Overall, I make about $10 000 every 2 weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less — so about $20 000 per month. Since this is a fee for service system, I’m not paid at all when I’m on vacation. My yearly income is approximately $200 000 with this system. So my yearly salary is $228 000 with the rostering fees before expenses.
My expenses
I don’t take home $228 000 per year, not even close. My main expense is the rent I pay to my clinic in order to work there. The rent includes the services of the secretaries that book the appointments as well as all the resources of the clinic (EKGs, suture kits etc. etc.) The rent is about $4 000 per months so about $48 000 per year. This is a fixed cost. Next up is the licensing fees $1 700, union dues about $1000, malpractice insurance $2000 yearly. I pay about $2000 to $3000 per year to keep on top of my continued medical education requirements. This all adds up to $7 700 pushing up total expenses to about $55 700.
So my take take home income before the tax man’s cut is about $172 300 per year. I have to pay for my own medical and dental insurance as well as my retirement accounts. Comparing myself to my colleagues and the published averages, I’m pretty much in the middle of what family docs in my area make.
So what do you think. Any part of this a surprise to you or pretty much what you expected. And any surprising ins or outs. Would love to see more salary transparency for colleagues going forward and more openness from the medical community.
