How are doctors paid?

Doctors are paid primarily through salaries, although the actual income varies greatly depending on the practice setting and medical specialty:

• The doctors that are hospital employees receive salaries and bonuses from the hospital administration.

• The medical school professors who work in the hospitals receive salaries from the schools and grants they've successfully applied for. The hospitals will allot some of their profits to the medical schools they are affiliated with.

• The doctors who have and manage their own clinics send the public (e.g., CMS) and the private payers (e.g., UnitedHealth, Aetna) the bills for the medical procedures they have conducted on the patients. The payers will reimburse some or all the bills the doctors submit.