Working in a professional field can guarantee you a huge amount of salary, especially if you have been practicing your expertise for so many years and there is a possibility that you gradually increased your position and prestige in the workplace which makes you a big asset in the workplace you are in.
But of course, receiving is not instant because there has to be some effort to be done as well as hard work and perseverance. There are also some factors why an employee is not paid immediately just yet because there is a system. Employees do get paid but not immediately since there is a certain period of time that every workplace establishment follow an on that specific day, they could finally give their employees’ paycheck or salary.
This article will cover about a medical professional, a surgeon to be specific on how often do they get paid or at what period of time do these surgical experts get paid? As well as answering the questions about the reasons why a surgeon is paid so much.
How Often Do Surgeons Get Paid?
According to research, those surgeons who work as a Visiting Medical Officer, are said to receive about. $540,096 Australian dollars in a year if they work in an average of 40 hours every week.
As for specialists who work in a private sector, surgeons are said to be paid around $1 million Australian dollars every single year.
But the real question is, when do surgeons get their pay check?
Fee for Service
According to some research, some surgeons get their pay on-the-spot when the payer pays whatever the surgeon charges for their services. This is called the fee for service and it is a traditional way of paying a healthcare professional.
This kind of payment method does not need any fees to be arranged once the surgeon gave the payer the insurance claim. This also serve as a basis for managing care at an earlier date which basically means that the surgeon agrees to provide care with a discount off from the regular fee for service fees.
Capitation
This kind of payment is received every month and it happens when a doctor or the health system that the doctor is working under for, receives a specific flat fee for taking care of the patient who is under the care of the establishment.
Relative Value Units
This type of payment is usually received by a surgeon when their expertise and services have to be expanded for long periods of time due to having a high-profile patient under their care. The salary that is received by surgeon through this payment is higher than what a usual surgeon would receive if is a general or usual patient case.
Bundled Payments or BPCI
This is a payment method of when a surgeon’s salary and the expenses of the medical establishment is combined together to make one payment for one episode of medical care service.
This usually happens when there is an outpatient surgery or a patient who has undergone a surgical operation but is discharged on the same day after the patient’s surgery. A single payment for the pre-operation, post-operation, and the surgery of the patient will be given to the surgeon or surgical team that are assigned to the outpatient.
Comprehensive Primary Care
The benefit of this type of payment is that it gives the medical providers the flexibility to think or decided what their patient needs before they deliver them. Comprehensive primary care is the process of keeping patient healthy through implementing a single risk-adjusted fee to be paid for the healthcare service they provide in a fixed period of time.
Concierge Care
Concierge care is another alternative for the traditional payment methods for medical services. With this payment model, the health care establishment charges a fee every month or annually in order to give the patient the accessibility to health care as well as personalized health care services for them.
Some other terms for this type of payment method are, concierge healthcare, direct care or direct primary care, retainer-based, personalized healthcare, or it could also be called as membership medicine.
The accessibility that will be provided varies on the surgeon that charges the fee. A good example would be, the patient has the accessibility to a 24-hour medical service from their physician because they have the medical professional’s contact details such as the e-mail address, phone number, and telephone number.
Why is a Surgeon’s Salary Really High?
A surgeon’s job is extremely difficult and important to every person’s life. They are responsible for surgical operations which is a process of a operating on a patient’s body as an alternative to other treatments. Surgery only happens whenever it is incredibly necessary or when a patient wants to minimize or remove the risk of having their condition get worse so it is best to remove the site of the illness before suffering a worse outcome.
Surgeons are needed almost every single time due to the high volume of people that come inside the medical establishments which a fraction of the amount patients who visit could possibly need surgical operations to be done to them. Surgeons are trained to excel in providing the best health care service and treatment to the patients which makes them deserving of the high salary.
Even doctors in training or those who are still taking up their residency, it was said that they are also one of the workers in Australia who earns a lot of money.
Basically, in a general sense, those who work in the medical field earns a huge salary because their expertise is always in demand, day and night, every single day. Even if it is just the smallest assistance or a regular check-up, being cooped up inside the laboratory for research purposes and to analyse a patient’s internal system, and dispensing of medication, a medical health professional’s salary is incredibly high.
The Bottomline
Basically, a surgeon gets paid almost immediately by the patient or the payer, depending on what type of payment method they choose to do for acquiring the medical service, while others have to wait for a certain period of time before getting their pay check.
It also still depends on when a surgeon will have to receive their pay check according to how often they go to work and how many medical services have they performed in a time period.
Sources:
https://advancemed.com.au/blog/salary-of-australian-doctors-surgeons/
https://medschool.ucsd.edu/som/surgery/news-events/Pages/How-Should-Surgeons-Get-Paid.aspx