Sports Medicine Physician

[Nurse]

Any idea how much of a salary difference between a sports med physician and lets say a FP. In general do they make more than a FP or similar, lets say they both work the same amount.

[moo]

As I've said in the past, it really depends on a lot of things. If you are a salaried physician (which most sports med MDs are paid under), you probably won't make much more than a FP in private practice, but you will have benefits and paid vacation, pension, etc. However, if you're salaried, you can't incorporate, and will end up paying more taxes without the benefits of a corporation. If you do do sports med as a private practice physician and others refer to you, there are billing codes that are more than a regular visit that you can bill (in BC, you get 72.82 for someone aged 2-49 if another physician, GP or specialist, refers to you), but you will probably spend more time with that patient because you need to do a more complete history, physical, etc. and dictate back a consult letter to the consulting MD. This fee code isn't much more than the fee code for a complete exam for a regular GP (66.20). If you work for a professional sports team (difficult job to get to begin with), you will probably get paid quite a bit, but I don't think anyone can tell you whether that's going to be more than what a FMD in PP makes. In short, this is a very difficult question to answer, and I highly doubt there are any MD surveys of sports med docs out there to really corroborate any answer I can give you.

[Nurse]

Moo

 

Thank you very much. I've followed your posts with a keen interest. You have changed my mind to FM from different things I was interested in. In some of your posts you have mentioned the flexibility FM brings to the table. There are always jobs and work to do whether locums or fixed clinics. This is one of many aspects that stood out for me in considering FM in future. I have a lot of interest in sports medicine which is something I would consider in via +1 route.

 

Thanks for your response.

[BigM]

What do you have to for in college to become a sports medicine physician and what is the average pay?

 

You should probably start with proper grammar. After that you need to complete a four year undergraduate degree followed by four years of medical school. A lot of sports medicine physicians are family medicine + an additional year (three years of residency). That means 11 years of school/training after you finish high school.

 

I'm not sure what the pay is like.