We found out on Friday that our corporate pay schedule is being completely revamped and NPs and MDs/DOs in any given specialty will be paid the same, weighted according to experience, not educational path. MSN/DNP prepared NPs will earn the same as MDs/DOs with the same amount of time in practice. Post graduate residency does count toward years of experience, as do fellowships. My "residency" was part and parcel of my graduate program, i.e. pre-graduation, and would not count. They way it was explained to me is that the corporation sees no effective difference between the physician in his/her first year of practice after a 3 year family practice residency and the NP with 3 years experience.
Salary varies widely according to specialty. I am in family practice and we are at the bottom of the salary tiers, but I am about to get a 28K a year raise, effective July 1st. Some of the specialties do not have NPs, so it doesn't apply-surgery for instance.
Bonuses will be paid on productivity and billing/collections, and be completely unrelated to level or type of education. They also threw out the patient satisfaction component. All that matters now is how much revenue one generates for the (for-profit) company. This is a very large corporation spanning two states, with 9,000 employees. It was approved by the board of directors that is almost entirely (11 physicians and 1 NP) made of up physicians- and it will be interesting to see how many of our competitors follow suit in the next few years. If this is the future, one would have to be absolutely crazy to go to medical school and then enter a low paying specialty like family practice/pediatrics, etc.
I think NPs might also have to be crazy to stay in backward states that do not allow for NP independence. I will be earning twice what my Duke classmates who stayed in NC earn, and have complete autonomy while I think the North Carolina NP practice act still calls for "supervision."
I suspect the dominos will start falling soon. States that restrict practice and income will not have any providers at all, and with health care reform coming to fruition around the corner, no one can afford to be in that position.
Unfortunately, the organization sees PAs differently and they are not included in the restructuring. There is one CNS (in diabetes) and she was not included either and I heard she resigned in protest at the end of the day Friday. Both of the states that this organization has offices in have independent provider status for NPs. I assume PAs and the CNS were left out because they cannot be independent providers. This is a real shame, and I hope it will be rectified very soon.
