I feel like the Optometry board has hit a lull for a while with its usual posting about student loans, schools etc so I thought I'd mix it up talk somewhat about money and other things about rural private practice. It always seem the Ophthalmology board or Dental board always has more interesting discussions than ours.
I graduated from Optometry school a few years ago and worked 1 year in a major city and was offered $115K right out of school to work in a corporate chain. At the time I thought the money was good but seeing full exams every 15 minutes and working nights and weekends I quickly got burnt out. I grew up in the Midwest and the saying is always "go rural" if you want to make money. So I sent out emails to many private practices seeing if anyone was interested in selling and responded to some practice Ads that were selling. I've worked here now for a little over 2 years and am finalizing my contract to purchase half the practice and have a partner that was here originally.
On this search and talking with practice owners this is what I found out; you are probably doing something terribly wrong if you aren't making over $200K rurally and the more successful private practices were doing >$300 and $400K. There was even 1 or 2 that they made just about $500K. And we are taking take home net, not gross. I joined a practice where the owners take home ~$400K and more each year.
Pros of Rural Practice
-Minimal vision plans, and a ton of medical billing which significantly increases your net pay. When you are the only practice around and practice to your full scope your days are packed full of most glaucoma, ARMD, and Diabetes. Some days I look forward to seeing your average -2.00 sph teenager contact lens patient
-Community Influence; you are met with much respect throughout the community and most appreciate you being around. You have the personal cell phone numbers of all the Physicians and ER docs because everyone works as a team around here to help care for these people. People recognize you in a restaurant and smile and wave. Some may think this is bad.
-No weekends, no nights. This speaks for itself. Since I've stopped working Saturdays every weekend still seems like a mini-vacation.
-The money$$$. As I said taking home $400K does a lot for student loans and saving. Also housing is cheaper and we live in super nice house on the nicest street in town for a
-Owning your building. Great tax advantages and the practice pays you extra income. Would highly recommend this.
-Full scope. It sometimes is the wild west out here. Some patients because of age can not travel so you are managing some complex conditions with the help of Ophthalmology via telephone. We rely on each other a lot when patients have to drive sometimes 2 hours for any procedure
-Minimal competition; somewhat battle with online retailers but no Costco, Sams Club, Lenscrafters around etc battling for glasses purchases. Some will still take their script and drive quite a ways for a cheap pair of glasses but really is not much of an issue
Cons of Rural Practice
-My God I miss the city some days. We are somewhat foodies and we do miss trying new places to eat etc. We will take some long weekends and drive into somewhere just for some shopping and eating out. I also feel like my kids may be missing out on some cultural activities and missing out from living in a small town. But again there are pros and cons in living in small town USA
-Again distance, having to drive 2 hours to get to a major airport is a bummer
-Could be seen as pro or con but again depending on the day Ophthalmology is 1-2 hours away. So any urgent need can be dififcult
-Also pro or con; being on call. I'd say half come from patients and half come from the local ER docs. Some are minor but also see some major injuries. But it nice that the ER docs know if it is eye related they can trust us to handle it.
Well hope this was somewhat interesting and let me know if there are any other questions.
I graduated from Optometry school a few years ago and worked 1 year in a major city and was offered $115K right out of school to work in a corporate chain. At the time I thought the money was good but seeing full exams every 15 minutes and working nights and weekends I quickly got burnt out. I grew up in the Midwest and the saying is always "go rural" if you want to make money. So I sent out emails to many private practices seeing if anyone was interested in selling and responded to some practice Ads that were selling. I've worked here now for a little over 2 years and am finalizing my contract to purchase half the practice and have a partner that was here originally.
On this search and talking with practice owners this is what I found out; you are probably doing something terribly wrong if you aren't making over $200K rurally and the more successful private practices were doing >$300 and $400K. There was even 1 or 2 that they made just about $500K. And we are taking take home net, not gross. I joined a practice where the owners take home ~$400K and more each year.
Pros of Rural Practice
-Minimal vision plans, and a ton of medical billing which significantly increases your net pay. When you are the only practice around and practice to your full scope your days are packed full of most glaucoma, ARMD, and Diabetes. Some days I look forward to seeing your average -2.00 sph teenager contact lens patient
-Community Influence; you are met with much respect throughout the community and most appreciate you being around. You have the personal cell phone numbers of all the Physicians and ER docs because everyone works as a team around here to help care for these people. People recognize you in a restaurant and smile and wave. Some may think this is bad.
-No weekends, no nights. This speaks for itself. Since I've stopped working Saturdays every weekend still seems like a mini-vacation.
-The money$$$. As I said taking home $400K does a lot for student loans and saving. Also housing is cheaper and we live in super nice house on the nicest street in town for a
-Owning your building. Great tax advantages and the practice pays you extra income. Would highly recommend this.
-Full scope. It sometimes is the wild west out here. Some patients because of age can not travel so you are managing some complex conditions with the help of Ophthalmology via telephone. We rely on each other a lot when patients have to drive sometimes 2 hours for any procedure
-Minimal competition; somewhat battle with online retailers but no Costco, Sams Club, Lenscrafters around etc battling for glasses purchases. Some will still take their script and drive quite a ways for a cheap pair of glasses but really is not much of an issue
Cons of Rural Practice
-My God I miss the city some days. We are somewhat foodies and we do miss trying new places to eat etc. We will take some long weekends and drive into somewhere just for some shopping and eating out. I also feel like my kids may be missing out on some cultural activities and missing out from living in a small town. But again there are pros and cons in living in small town USA
-Again distance, having to drive 2 hours to get to a major airport is a bummer
-Could be seen as pro or con but again depending on the day Ophthalmology is 1-2 hours away. So any urgent need can be dififcult
-Also pro or con; being on call. I'd say half come from patients and half come from the local ER docs. Some are minor but also see some major injuries. But it nice that the ER docs know if it is eye related they can trust us to handle it.
Well hope this was somewhat interesting and let me know if there are any other questions.
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