Now that you finished medical school and residency, you may think to yourself “How am I going to pay back these loans, get a house, get a car, support a family?” Unlike 20 years ago, you have many options to supplement your income. Here are some ways for physicians to supplement their income whether they are fresh out of residency or experienced.
1. Get a job with the state Department of transportation (DOT) as a medical examiner: http://nadme.org/
2. Teaching university courses online. There may be a variety of health related topics you can teach. See www.uoponline.com among others.
3. Author CME courses. See: www.arcmesa.org
4. Locum tenens can be a good idea. Try: Nomad
Nomad is a free network for doctors to find great locum tenens, telehealth, and permanent jobs, without agency recruiters and with full transparency of job details. Don’t let recruiters take more of what you should be making! The site was created For doctors, by doctors.
nomad
5. Check out some freelance sites for possible medical writing or other positions: www.upwork.com, www.sologig.com, www.elance.com
6. There are always jobs for doing IME’s or expert witnessing for attorneys or insurance companies. See: www.mcn.com, www.nationalmedicalconsultants.com, Scope Medical
7. Try www.ssa.gov for your state social security office. You could be an expert witness, review charts or see patients.
8. Freelance writing, either online or offline on parenting topics. See: www.writersmarket.com, www.writersweekly.com and many others for more on freelance writing. There are many parenting websites and they are often looking for content. Having an MD can really help you get your foot in the door.
9. Have you considered becoming a life or career coach? Check out www.coachville.com (coaching is listed in the Edwards book as one of the highest paying and most in demand work-at-home jobs). The work is done primarily by telephone.
10. Teach online for Kaplan for the MCAT and the other Pre-Health tests. It’s a super easy job and you can TA from behind the scenes (and therefore can literally just log in, answer some questions and get paid $20 an hour) If you actually teach it, you’ll make $30+ an hour.
11. In regards to surveys, I recommend M3, Reckner, MDLinx. You will not be contacted all that frequently, but they’ll pay you $200-300 for an hour of your time. It can be interesting too, as it usually involves new drug, device, etc.
12. Midlevel providers — nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs)– are entering independent practice or working in retail clinics that have no doctors on-site. Mid level providers are often required to designate a supervising physician and work with him or her. They pay the supervising physician as much as $15,000 a year for basically several hours of work each month.
How do physicians find midlevels to supervise? NPs looking for physician-supervisors sometimes advertise on Craigslist, or you might be able to connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, according to the Nurse Practitioner Business Owner Website. This site also offers discussion groups.
13. Sitting at your own home office, you can provide telehealth consults to distant patients. This work — done by phone or over the Internet — generally uses part-time physicians. You can arrange to take the calls in your off hours.
Telehealth doctors, who advise patients whom they will never meet in person, deal with a variety of simple complaints. Because procedures are not involved, the work is a good fit for primary care physicians. They can even write short-term prescriptions. If the telehealth physician decides that the complaint cannot be handled over the phone, the patient is directed to a local doctor or the emergency department.
See: http://www.ringadoc.com, http://www.americanwell.com, http://www.teladoc.com, http://www.mynowclinic.com/provider, http://www.soliant.com/physicians, http://www.virtualmedicalgroup.com
14. The resurgence of house calls provides a new way to make extra money. A variety of fledgling companies offer part-time employment, reviving a tradition that seemed all but dead in the 1990s.
See: http://www.innhousedoctor.com, http://www.whiteglove.com
15. Physicians can get short-term locum tenens jobs to staff special events, such as walks and runs, music festivals, and health screenings.
16. Work on a Cruise Ship
See: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line
17. Compensation and Pension Exams, IMEs, Peer Reviews
Do exams for the military, Veterans Administration and insurance companies.
Designated Doctor Exams, Required Medical Exams & Independent Medical Exams: Evaluating the medical status of an injured patient.
Treatment Planning/Reviews: Evaluating and making recommendations concerning the proper medical treatment.
Second Surgical Opinions: Evaluating surgical candidates
See: MET, http://www.churchilleval.com, USA Jobs, QTC, VES, Concentra
18. Identify Cash-paying Services in Your Own Practice. It’s clear to succeed we must become less reliant on insurance. Are there patients that you service that are not dependent on medical insurance? For example, if you are in primary care, are there patients you can identify who are paying by cash? Contact these patients as this could be a seamless way in transitioning to a concierge medicine practice.
19. Start a Class. Is your clinic unused on the weekends or after hours? You may want to consider offering group classes to help with patients, or attract new ones. These can be on topics where you wish you can spend more time with patients. Examples we have recommended include bringing in nutritionists, or start a smoking cessation session. This can bring in income when your clinic is not in use.
20. Become a Coach or Consultant. What type of specialized knowledge can you share with others? Becoming a consultant can help you provide help to others who need it and will pay you for your expertise. In fact I know doctors who help other doctors with burnout, build a cash practice, or advise on financial investments. With many doctors transitioning this area will just get even bigger and in demand.
21. Create your Own Online Membership Site. I’ve worked with doctors who have built private fee-based websites for their patients where they share knowledge to help them with their health. Note, you don’t have to be limited by health subjects, just find a topic that you are passionate, and that you can provide content that people will want.
22. Start a Blog. Have something to say? You can make a nice extra income by writing and selling your own products via your own blog. Make extra money selling online advertising. You can also use that as a springboard to building a following. Generate more revenue by adding an email autoresponder to notify readers of upcoming posts.
See: www.kevinmd.com, www.33charts.com, www.getbetterhealth.com, Mercola
23. Rent out your office space to other doctors needing space. For example, you can rent out your space for doctors to conduct physical exams, EMG nerve conduction tests, or any other use they may need. Use Backpage or Craigslist to list your space.
24. Workmen’s Compensation Exams, Disability Evaluations, Peer Reviews, Appeal Reviews, and/or FMLA Second and Third Opinions
See: MSLA
25. Medicare Advantage exams – Perform in-house exams. You are not required to prescribe medication, order lab tests, do blood work or alter the member’s current treatment regimen.
You can choose to work locally, across state, or out of state. They work entirely around your schedule to make these evaluations as convenient as possible. They can be done on a part-time or ongoing/weekly basis.
See Censeo Health
26. Work at an urgent care center. Mainly open to ER docs, Occupational Medicine, Internal Medicine and Family Medicine. Pediatricians can work at Pediatric urgent care centers.
Please SHARE with any physician that wants to reach their true potential! Thanks for the support.
Please check back often as I intend to update this post.