Publication Exclusive: A 2-year countdown from associate to partner

Although there is a discernable trend of young eye surgeons settling for durable non-owner associate positions in institutional, staff-model HMO and closely held private practices, most of the peri-graduates I speak with would strongly prefer to eventually be a shareholder. And private independent practice is still, by far, the dominant enterprise model in ophthalmology and will remain so for many years to come.

Accordingly, it is useful to review the typical 10-point timeline of events from one’s late residency or fellowship to employment and on through your early years as an owner.

John B. Pinto

While each of these 10 stages may feel daunting, rest assured, your employing practice is faced with just as many or more challenges as it undertakes the process of finding a candidate and moving him or her from newbie to economic peer.

1. Phase zero: Decide where you want to live.

A generation-and-a-half ago, you had to go where the jobs were because there were more doctors than jobs. Today, we have a seller’s market for young surgeon labor. Rising demand with 10,000 new seniors a day and falling residency slots are making you hot property, so you get to choose where you want to live. Take advantage of this. Break out a map. There are more than 300 discrete markets in the United States, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Denver, San Francisco and Chicago are great places to live, but there are too few patients per ophthalmologist, so you will twiddle your thumbs in the early years. On the other hand, if you love to hunt, fish and snowmobile and have family in the Midwest, you will be pounded from your earliest days. It is a giant trade-off. Generally speaking, eye surgeons in plum markets will have half the lifetime earnings of their colleagues in the climactically and culturally challenged spot on the map. And their personal lifestyle costs will be twice as high.

2. Decide what kind of practice you want to own and operate.

The most secure practices have a 50-plus-year operating history, 10 or more partners, and an enduring lock on patient access. But such practices are often like battleships, difficult to turn around in the face of market pressures. And they can be notoriously political hotbeds, affording young owners a disproportionately small voice in governance. They can also be larded with 60- and 70-something hard-working senior owners, whose imminent departure will leave behind a less ambitious third generation of surgeons ill-equipped to carry the largely fixed overhead, much less take on the burdens of modern medical commerce. At the other end of the spectrum, we find elegant, simple — but in today’s environment, profoundly vulnerable — solo and small group practices. The surgeons in such practices are often happiest, but this is tempered by their uncertain staying power.

Beyond the dimension of raw scale, you should also consider whether the practice you are contemplating for your first post-grad posting is overly dependent on one rainmaking senior surgeon who is nearing retirement or rests on the shoulders of a larger and more diverse provider base. And irrespective of scale, it pays a large dividend if before you accept employment in a given practice you interview local hospital administrators, as well as a few administrators and managing partners of the local competing practices.

3. Do not just find a job — negotiate a track to partnership.

In your first 2 to 3 years as an associate, representing perhaps 8% or so of your total career span, you will only earn about 4% of your lifetime earnings. Your base and bonus compensation as an associate, while important, will (if you are lucky and work hard) pale in comparison to your total compensation as a partner. Accordingly, you should focus your negotiations not just on associate-period terms but on the path to partnership, asking these questions:

What has been the history of associates becoming partners in this practice?
What are the objective financial or other hurdles one has to clear in order to “make” partner? How often will I receive feedback on my progress toward becoming partner-worthy?
What portion of the core practice, as well as auxiliary ASC, optical and real estate components, will I be allowed to buy into?
What will be the pricing for each of these? What will be the payment terms?
What are the buyout provisions for retiring partners?
What is the partner compensation methodology?
Can you describe the practice board and the governance model for the practice?
Is there a written business plan for the practice? Are all of the partners behind the big-picture plan (whether or not it is written down formally)?
Beyond owner-level leadership, do we have enough administrative horsepower to deliver on the plan?

Click here to read the full publication exclusive, By the Numbers, published in Ocular Surgery News U.S. Edition, August 10, 2015.