Physician Compensation Questions to Ask your Potential Employer

As you begin your physician jobs journey, don’t forget that also means preparing physician compensation questions to ask your potential employer.

Common questions asked during a healthcare job interview range from a variety of topics like:

• Clinical Skills and Experience
• Strength and Weaknesses
• Conflict and Stress (how you handle each)
• Motivation (what motivates you?)
• Hiring (why should we hire you?)

Just like how healthcare employers prepare specific questions to ask potential hires, it is also your job to prepare the “right” questions to ask them – especially questions focused on compensation.

When discussing compensation, don’t make it seem like you only want the job for the money. Here are 5 physician compensation questions you should ask your potential employer:

1. Can you describe your physician compensation structure? This question will give you insights into how you will be paid and what influences it.
2. What benefits/incentives are included in your physician compensation package? Understand what your potential employer offers in terms of benefits, incentives, bonuses, and other perks such as student loan repayment and medical malpractice insurance. Don’t forget to ask how these perks might change over time.
3. What is my guaranteed base salary and how long is this guarantee? Understand how much your potential employer is willing to pay for your “guaranteed base salary” and for how long – this is your “safety net” as it typically takes 1-2 years to build your schedule with new patients.
4. After my guaranteed based salary, will I be asked to transition to a productivity-based compensation plan? If so, what is the process? This is an important question to ask if this is the type of compensation agreement your potential employer offers you. Transitioning from a salary to a productivity-based compensation plan can have a huge impact on your finances.
5. In terms of compensation, what is the range of what are other physicians (regardless of specialty) are earning in your practice or facility? Prior to your interview, do some research to see what physicians earn and the benchmarks established across the nation. This will help you understand if your potential employer is fair when it comes to employee compensation and how flexible and open to negotiating, they are.

Asking these compensation driven questions during your interview can give you an overall snapshot on the type of compensation structure and package your potential employer offers.

Remember when interviewing, compensation is only one topic that will be discussed. Here are a few interview tips we’ve put together to help you have successful interviews in the future.

Looking for physician job opportunities? Connect with one of our physician recruiters to discuss. For now, here is our FREE physician jobs resource for you to check out.