How much do general surgeons earn?

Answer 1

This largely depends on the area and workload of the general surgeon. It is also dependent on the types of patients and procedures that are performed. Also in some areas like the US, this depends heavily on the type of insurance or payment that the majority of patients have.

Answers from contributors include:

• $200,000 - $500,000
• $249,000 - $336,000
• $200,000 - $500,000
• $370,000+
• $1,100,000 in 2008 at Decatur Il Hospital
• $100,000 - $600,000, averaging $250,000

General surgeons can also acquire perks with their jobs, that are (but not limited to):

• free health insurance
• loan repayment for exchange of a long term contract
• 4 to 6 weeks of paid time off
• paid holidays

For example, you may work in an area where the majority of your patients have good, corporate insurance and your pool of Medicaid patients is low. In this instance, provided that you perform a lot of procedures and work in an area with a relatively high population, you will earn a higher income compared to someone from a small town seeing a lot of Medicaid patients who has a smaller practice.

"Production" is not the same as "Collection". You may perform procedures that at the end of the year "should" earn you a total of $700K ("production"). BUT, if your patients don't pay what they owe (or anything at all), then your "collection" may only be $300K. That's a big difference!

Also, some General Surgeons specialize in areas such as vascular surgery or gastric bypass, so their income will be different. (For example, Medicaid doesn't pay for gastric bypass, so these will be patients who have been pre-qualified and the payment is guaranteed.)