Recently I was asked to serve as a consultant on a medical matter. Interestingly, they requested my hourly price for my services. I thought about this and wondered, “What am I worth in per hour in the open market?”
It is an interesting question to ponder.
I have decided to ask the blog-o-sphere. Call it a bit of “free market economics.” For the record, 100% of my hourly wage for my services will be sent to our cardiovascular research fund at our hospital to avoid any conflict of interest. I will not see ANY of the money the blog-o-sphere decides personally, but I really want to know what people think.
So where to begin?
Should I compare my hourly wage to MGMA standards for the annual physician salary of a physician of my subspecialty? If so, do I pick the 50% percentile, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, or 95th percentile? On what basis do I have to assure this is a fair price? Who sets this price? Are these data accurate or based on earlier years’ hospital data and physician surveys? Can I verify that their hourly price is justified? If so, how? Or are their data proprietary?
