Supply & Demand

Supply & Demand is the answer

An established podiatrist creates his own demand

Employed podiatrists are depending off of someone else’s demand, and you are replaceable, and can be replaced fairly easily and inexpensively. If you are buying into a practice or becoming a partner than make sure it is in a contract and you had your lawyer look at the deal to protect your interests. The hiring doctors are not always the bad the guy, there are at least two sides to every story. They do know what the market will bear and from their prospective why should they pay more until the young doctor has proven themselves. It is not easy to support a new doctor when most podiatrists are solo practitioners. It is much easier for a group to absorb the cost of a new associate.

While there are some major institutions that feel the need to have a well trained podiatrist employed and offer a nice salary and benefit package, the majority of the market for podiatry is in private practice.

In most parts of the country we do not take ER call.

Some doctors are podiatrist friendly for inn patient diabetic foot infections and ulcer referrals and in other communities the referrals go to other specialties.

In some parts of the country there are nursing homes if you want to make some extra money and in other parts of there country they already have podiatrists.

Other doctors can do most of what we do. They usually do not do it as well, but that is not my point.

You will have to try to find what your niche is in your community, and “run” with it.

Some podiatrists develop thriving practices that are 99% physician referral, some use marketing effectively, which can be expensive and may not be profitable unless you attract a high percentage of private insurance and convert a high percentage of those new patients to surgeries. Most podiatrists get a few calls from the yellow pages and a few physician referrals, but depend largely on word of mouth and that takes time.

To do very well one must target the patient with private insurance, and have investments. You may not make it with Medi/Medi and routine care. You should try to have an office as nice as the doctors in your area, maybe even nicer. Do not sell surgery, but use it after conservative care has failed.

It takes time, and money to build a thriving practice. It is not impossible, and there are ways to start inexpensively. In some areas it is very hard to get on the insurance plans. If you have created your own thriving private practice (created your own demand) you will do very well, and in most cases have less call than other specialties. To do well in podiatry you must practice good medicine and it really helps to be a bit of an entrepreneur, and have a personality.

If you think simply because of you degree and the aging baby boomers you will have multiple 100K opportunities waiting for you, than this is the wrong profession for you. It would be nice due to the cost and length of the education, but do not count on it.

One can do quite well as an established podiatrist, but you will not by any means do quite well simply because you are a podiatrist.

Many young dentists struggle. Things have gotten better recently with the whitening and increase in cosmetic procedures, but a few years back they had schools closing because of the oversupply. RNs are doing well right now, but if supply and demand changes do you think the hospitals will pay them more than they have to? Many physician offices are doing away with RNs due to budget issues. They have no direct access to patients so are out of luck when the tide turns. Urology, I think they do pretty well, if you have what it takes to be a Urologist then go for it. Sometimes the grass really is greener, but often it is about the same shade, and sometimes it is not greener at all.

Make a very, very, educated decision what profession is right for you. Once you decide than do not look back, and make the best of it. There will always be hurdles in life and things that are out of your control. Those that see themselves as victims are usually equally to blame for their demise. It is still possible to have a nice lifestyle in podiatry.