Dr. Lee Sharma welcomes Kyle Claussen, to unpack the art and science of physician contract negotiation. With 15 years of expertise and endorsements from over 50 state medical societies, Kyle shares actionable strategies for securing fair compensation, capping call duties, and aligning contracts with personal priorities. Learn how to navigate complex employment agreements, overcome conflict avoidance, and leverage market data to build a fulfilling, balanced medical career.
In this episode of Scalpel and Sword, host Dr. Lee Sharma interviews Kyle Claussen, to discuss the evolution of Resolve since its founding 15 years ago by a physician addressing gaps in residency training on compensation and contracts. He highlights the unique aspects of medical contracts, the shift toward employment models, and the increasing complexity of language post-COVID. Key topics include aligning contracts with personal priorities, capping call duties, ensuring extra pay for additional work, and leveraging market data for fair reimbursement. Kyle emphasizes negotiating in good faith, overcoming conflict avoidance, and empowering physicians—especially women and minorities—to recognize their value. He advocates for data-driven approaches, understanding financials for private practice, and preparing for renegotiations. This episode equips healthcare professionals with tools to level the playing field and achieve resilient, fulfilling careers.
Three Actionable Takeaways
Prepare for Private Practice Options – Explore both employed and independent paths; understand financials like profit/loss statements for ownership tracks. Negotiate with future partners in mind, balancing autonomy with risk tolerance.
About the Show:
Behind every procedure, every patient encounter, lies an untold story of conflict and negotiation. Scalpel and Sword, hosted by Dr. Lee Sharma—physician, mediator, and guide—invites listeners into the unseen battles and breakthroughs of modern medicine. With real conversations, human stories, and practical tools, this podcast empowers physicians to reclaim their voices, sharpen their skills, and wield their healing power with both precision and purpose.
About the Guest
Kyle Claussen is the CEO of Resolve, a company dedicated to empowering physicians through expert contract negotiation and compensation advocacy. With over 15 years of experience, Resolve, under Kyle’s leadership, has become a trusted resource, endorsed by more than 50 state medical societies and recognized nationally. Kyle is a frequent speaker across the U.S., sharing insights on physician contract strategies, salary benchmarks, and navigating employment challenges. As the spouse of a physician, he brings a personal understanding of the medical profession’s demands. Kyle is also a proud owner of a Bernedoodle named Murphy, who holds the title of “star of the house.” His mission is to level the playing field for physicians by providing data-driven tools and transparency to secure fair contracts and work-life balance.
Website: resolve.com
About the Host:
Dr. Lee Sharma is a gynecologist based in Auburn, AL, with over 30 years of clinical experience. She holds a Master’s in Conflict Resolution and is passionate about helping colleagues navigate workplace challenges and thrive through open conversations and practical tools.
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome my peaceful warriors. Welcome to the Scalpel and Sword Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Lee Sharma, physician and conflict analyst, and I am so excited to have on the podcast today, Kyle Clawson. Kyle is the CEO of resolve. Which is a company that is completely and utterly dedicated to helping physicians with contract negotiation, salary negotiation.
They are endorsed by over 50 state medical societies and also nationally. Kyle is a speaker all over the country with regards to physician contracts and negotiation. His spouse is a physician, and I gotta love it. I tell you, when people put their dog in their bio, it's like I'm already a kindred spirit.
If you've got your dog in there, you've got a bernedoodle named Murphy. So I love that he's the star of the house, so you know, you gotta include him, aren't they all though? The fur babies are always the star. But Kyle, welcome to the podcast. Appreciate you. Thank you for being here. [00:01:00] So how long ago did you found Resolve, and what was your impetus in starting this company?
Resolves been around for, about 15 years now. So, the reason it was formed, it was actually formed, by a physician who was doing, these business of medicine talks to residents and just understanding that there's very little training around. compensation and contracts and all the things that, go into getting your first job.
And that's where it started. And it's come obviously quite a long ways, like most companies in the last 15 years. It's evolved and, we utilize a lot of technology now that we didn't, back in 2010. but it started from a physician and, that's, the core of what we do is try to empower physicians in this very specific niche.
That's so great. I always like to, share my age. I had finished training in the nineties, and I remember the Rite of passage when you were getting your first job is you took your contract to the attorney. Yeah. And that was kind of a process. And you went to the attorney and they looked at your contract and they made recommendations.
And once you got it approved, and once you got it taken care of, you went out to dinner or celebrated. Because at that point you knew you [00:02:00] were locked into your job. Correct. But these were not attorneys that. Necessarily specialized in physician contracts or reimbursement. they may have been contract attorneys, but not necessarily in the space of medicine.
What makes medical contract negotiation a different animal? Well, I think it's like any area of the law really, or any area of medicine. It's, you want to be sub-specialized, you wanna be really good at what you're doing and seeing the market, at a very high level. And the more volume you have, the better advice you can give.
And so I think it's not necessarily unique to medical contracts. It's unique to every topic, but because we focus here right, all day, every day, you know, we can, tell you the last time. this certain employer, had a contract come through and maybe what those terms were or what their in-house counsel likes to do with language or what they don't like to do.
And I think nothing against a local attorney, right. That's maybe next to the residency program that you were at. I think they can do a good job as well. I just think their access to the market and the high level picture is sometimes limited. and so that's the part of the value that we bring is that expertise on a national level.[00:03:00]
Yeah, and I think that's a great perspective that not only are you familiar with physician contracts, you're familiar with the people with whom you are negotiating, you probably have seen multiple contracts come through from a single entity. And so you've got experience with how that language works and how their in-house counsel works.
And that's very interesting perspective that maybe somebody who does contract law, but not necessarily what you're doing. Very, very, very different. I think it's also interesting. One of the things that I thought was interesting on your website when I was preparing for this was even though 80% of us right now are employed, there's still 20% of physicians that are in independent practice, and those physicians still have the burden of contract negotiation.
in terms of what's coming in, what you're looking at Resolve, now that we've got so many physicians that are employed. What shifts have you seen in contracts and sort of contract language and negotiation? Yeah, I mean, that demographic or that breakdown is right. I mean it's, most residents now are gonna go out into an employed setting, [00:04:00] right?
Meaning that they're gonna work for a health system. They're not gonna have the opportunity to buy in and have equity ownership. But every resident comes out as an employee to start with, right? I mean, even if you go into private practice, you're not a partner from day one. And so, contractually, you've gotta know what that means.
You've gotta protect yourself and, certainly the shift. for systems and academic centers, even private practice, I mean, all of them, their footprint has grown, right? Because there's been a lot of consolidation. And so, what that means is that the employment side of it, I think is getting more and more polished.
I think some of the documents are getting more verbose, and they're heavier and they're considering all these circumstances that maybe they didn't 10 years ago. And we've had COVID happen in the last, you know, 10 years and that's caused issues. And so I think the language is not getting simpler.
I guess I'll put it that way. Yeah, It's interesting you talk about how these contracts have gotten weightier and heavier. There's just more consideration that kind of goes into this process, and it's maybe more so for employed physicians, but also in these bigger systems. What are some things that you specifically try to educate, like people say coming out of residency, going into private [00:05:00] practice, or if they're going into, let's take employed physicians.
What kind of things do you specifically try to look for in those contracts? Well, we always wanna start out with making sure the document fits that individual. So it feels to me like every client has different needs and they all come in with things that we're told to them throughout the interview process of how much call they're gonna take or.
What locations they're gonna work at. or if there's tail coverage or if there's not, right? I mean, they, they've been told a lot and we never know what that conversation has been, right? they come to us at the end of the process usually. and so step number one is making sure the document reflects what they think they're getting into.
And oftentimes it doesn't. And I think that's where we then have to start to work through, well, what are priorities for you? What are deal breakers for you and what aren't? and try to narrow that list down as much as we can, because we do wanna go through any negotiation, right?
In good faith. We wanna make sure we're, you know, hitting on things that matter and not wasting times on things that don't. But, trying to customize, I think is the most important thing that I would say systems and every employer, right, in healthcare and otherwise, they want to have standardized documents.
They want [00:06:00] to have the same thing for everyone. It just doesn't work very well from where I sit in medicine. And we try to accomplish that as much as we can for our clients. I think that's such a great point. I did an interview, about a month and a half ago with one of my former medical students that is now in private practice, and we were talking about her process of negotiation and one of the things that she just touched on that she also verbalized was how important it was for her to have a clear understanding of what she wanted.
You know, in terms of walking into that negotiation. It wasn't just a matter of walking in with a contract and giving it to a professional like you and saying, okay, look at this contract. It was actually understanding these are the things that are important to me. And so sharing that with you as you're looking, reviewing that contract makes you a better, you know, and more informed person to look at that because they have to know what they're actually after.
One of the things that you also mentioned was this discussion of expectations. Mm-hmm. And I think Call is a great place to look at that. I was watching an interview that you had done where you were talking about And I hate to say this very common situation where a physician is walking into an [00:07:00] employment situation where maybe they were told they were taking one in seven or one in eight, and then people leave or people retire and all of a sudden you're told you're taking one in four and one in five and there's nothing in the contract that covers that.
How do you help physicians prepare for those kind of situations? Well, what we ultimately would like to do is to make sure the contract protects them to whatever level of call they're comfortable with. So if the call pool is currently like one in seven in your example, and they say, Hey, I'm willing to help out a little bit, right?
If somebody leaves or there's a car accident, somebody comes disabled, those things that happen. but I never want to take more than one in five. Right. Well then. We'd like to have language that says, calls capped at one in five. And it doesn't mean that the system or the employer's not gonna need coverage.
They will, but it means go out and find locum coverage. Right? Don't make the current pool of physicians that there do that and, cover that. And so that's step one is how much do you want to take? Step two is, when do I want start to get paid more? If I'm supposed to take one in seven call and I'm taking one in five.
And maybe I'm young and single and I wanna make as much money as I can. Well, that's great, but I still wanna be [00:08:00] paid for that extra call that I'm taking. So there's, two components of, what's important to people, frequency, and then pay. Yeah. I also think that's a really great way of making sure that physicians don't get in that situation.
'cause it's not something you think about, oh, they told me I'm taking one in seven, and then you make this assumption that that's never gonna change. And that's just not the nature of any workforce really, but especially in medicine, that workforce is always shifting. So helping physicians prepare for that eventuality.
Contractually, I think is huge. A big thing you also mentioned is the idea of appropriately being reimbursed. if you're doing the extra work, are you getting extra pay for that extra work? and there's also gonna be times, this is one of the things that as I was looking at resolve, I thought was really cool, is that you also help physicians negotiate.
Reimbursement and in many times getting a reimbursement that's appropriate for what they're doing and what their geography is. Is that something that a lot of physicians come to resolve for? I think so. I think sometimes there's almost this [00:09:00] line in the sand of people only care about the dollars, right?
Or they only care about everything else. Right. The language and the risk and all the softer points. And we would prefer that they. Pay attention to all of it, honestly, and that they negotiate all that in good faith. And so one of the things that's unique about us, because we see thousands and thousands of contracts every year, is we can give you a lot of those insights.
what are people being paid per worker r you, right? What are starting offers, kind that market intelligence that you need. In addition to some of the survey information that you're gonna want access to, so most employers use MGMA or Solve and Cotter or some combination of those. you do get access to, MGMA information as well, on our site.
And so it's hopefully giving you as much information as possible. It really gets you the best outcome, which is what we're after. Yeah. One of the phrases that you just used, which I think is so important for any negotiation or any conflict management, is in good faith. the idea that everybody's coming to the table with true transparency, not just for what they want, but what their expectations are communally.
but we're not pulling our punches. We're not trying to do anything down and dirty. We're [00:10:00] actually really trying to get a good working relationship contractually between the employer or the practice and the physician. And this transparency that you're providing people. I think with having national data, MGMA data, things like that, where you can look at, okay, this is what a pediatrician makes in the southeast and this is appropriate to ask for.
I think that's really huge. and also I think a lot of physicians tend to be conflict avoidant. You know, they don't wanna deal with a conflict. And so I think one of the great things about Resolve is they feel like they have an ally. Walking into that negotiation, they feel like they're not going in there alone.
Do you feel like you have physicians that sometimes because they are conflict avoidant or just I don't wanna get into it. I want this, but I don't really wanna get Do you? Yeah. is that some, characteristic that you deal with a lot. Probably more common than.
it's probably the majority rule that physicians are usually a little bit risk averse. They don't like conflict. They've, sometimes don't wanna offend anybody right. Throughout the process. And they don't wanna come across as being greedy, right? Because we know [00:11:00] the compensation numbers are higher than normal, right?
Or higher than average. but what we try to focus on is value. And so we know healthcare is, almost one fifth of our GDP , right? We know that the numbers in healthcare are huge , right? And we know that physicians provide. Almost all that revenue generation through your license, right? And so we know that you've gotta be a big part of that pie and a big part of that equation.
And so when we go in good faith, what that means is we're not trying to ask for 90th or a hundredth percentile numbers right? All the time. And we hope that the employer is not offering 10 percentile numbers either. it's kind of this range in the middle and we're negotiating, between that range.
And I think if you do that, it's, that's kinda the definition of good faith to me. Oh, absolutely. One of the things that you also talked about and we talk a lot, and especially on the podcast, I feel like we focus on residents and residents going into training and then young doctors going into private practice.
But there's a lots of other parts of this sort of process and people, clients that are coming in and physicians that are either retiring, [00:12:00] selling a practice. Actually making that transition. That's something else. I'm sure that you see a lot of people who are trying to either sell a practice or bring in a partner.
as sticky a process, I guess we would say as doctors coming into practice? well, it might be stickier actually, or more complex. So if you're selling a practice, you're being bought out by a health system or private equity or whoever the buyer is. There's a lot that goes into that.
'cause you're not only selling your revenue stream, but you're probably gonna become an employee, right. Of that new entity for at least a short period of time. They don't want you to just walk off and have the patients leave. 'cause that's the big value. So yeah, I think it's all of the corporate documentation that has to go along with it on top of.
A new employment setting that you're looking at, and sometimes the value of the practice is split between those documents. So yeah, certainly something that you're gonna wanna be careful of, that you're gonna want to think through. Not only short term is this good for me, but also how long am I gonna practice and what does that look like, three or four years down the road.
I think if you're. [00:13:00] I'll say 65. Right. In selling a practice, it's probably a much different discussion than if you're 40. Right. And you're selling a practice. Mm-hmm. Because you're likely gonna have, more years to, to sit in that new system. So, definitely complex definitely adds another layer, to the, conversation and certainly something that's happened a lot over the last five to 10 years, especially I'm sure with the rise of private equity I'm seeing, I'm sure you're seeing that a whole lot more.
Yeah. Also too, like this idea of bringing in other physicians into this practice situation. Let's say I'm, for example, I'm a solo practice owner, so if I was ever to bring in somebody else, it's almost like getting married. You would definitely, I would be very conscientious about bringing somebody into something that you had been with and was something that very near and dear to your heart.
Do you find that often, and I'm sure you do, just by virtue of the fact this is what you specialize in, that there are so many things that doctors don't think about. Going into these kind of negotiations? Well, you mentioned the word marriage, and I'm gonna use that loosely, but we often kind of joke [00:14:00] that, if you're a family law attorney, you talk about the divorce with the marriage and if you're in this setting, you really have to think about how do we break up?
If this doesn't work, and that's a hard conversation to have because you're trying to be excited and, Hey, I'm bringing in somebody that's new and this is gonna be great. We're gonna be partners. But I think that's probably the part that gets overlooked the most is, Hey, five years from now, my spouse gets a new job and we just need to move.
Right? It's, everything's going great, but we have to depart. What does that look like? Or. What happens if there's substance abuse from one of us and you know, it's you or me, or somebody's an alcoholic, or they've got drug issues. Like what does that look like if we need to break up, or if we wanna sell out to private equity, right?
There might be different paths through that process on how the relationship ends and the valuations could be different and our purchase price formula might be different. And so, yeah, I think it's. really, really important to think about the full picture and all the possible solutions, even if they're not fun to think about upfront, because it's gonna make your life a lot easier in the event.
Those things do arise later on. I think that's so [00:15:00] brilliant. The awareness of, especially as people are coming into those agreements, this stuff might happen. We have the best of intentions. We are very optimistic. But the world is the world and life is life. We just don't know. And so it's so much better on the front end to have something set up.
If this breakup happens for whatever reason, that we actually know how we're gonna handle it. I would almost say that even though it's hard probably to have that conversation with your physicians with whom you're writing these contracts and reviewing the contracts for the fact that you are building that sort of awareness in them.
Conflict happens. we're not gonna be happy a hundred percent of the time. This is how we're gonna handle it. If, I almost wonder if when you have those conversations with doctors that they walk away from those conversations, and maybe, I'm not gonna say necessarily less conflict. We're probably better able to handle it because you've made them think about it a little bit.
Yeah, you hope so. the idea is that if you're, going to a physician and they [00:16:00] specialize in something, they're gonna give you a lot of information, right? And even things that you haven't thought about yet, and then you walk away going, oh, okay, well now I can make a better decision for myself because I have the full picture.
It's the same way for us we've seen a lot, right? And, crazy examples that have come up. And so we're always bringing those into the table to say, Hey, what if this, what if that, what if the other thing happens? And then physicians are really good at making decisions once you have all of the information.
And so we feel like that's our job is to give you as much of that information as we can and then let you decide how do you wanna attack this? And then we'll help you, right? With tools and language and contracts to get you there. but our clients are more than capable once they know everything.
Absolutely. You had mentioned that the physician that founded this company initially started out by giving talks to residency programs. Yeah. So your company's 15 years old, so those talks started in the 2010s. Mm-hmm. So there's this whole generation of doctors. That came out and are currently practicing that.
Never got that kind of business education. and I'm cheerfully, I will admit that I was one of those that, the idea of any [00:17:00] talk of contract negotiation, salary negotiation, any kind of business acumen was just not something that was given to us. they gave us a residency training and they kicked us out and they said, go, go, go.
And most of the education that. I've gotten has been through talking with people like you. My husband is very business-minded, so I've gotten my education in different ways. Do you see a difference between these younger physicians coming out in practice and maybe some of the people of the nineties and early two thousands who weren't as fortunate to have that kind of business education?
little bit. So I'm gonna frame your situation. And a lot of our clients that have been out, I'm gonna say between 10 and 20 years, right? Somewhere in that timeframe. They're school of hard knocks where they may have gone through a contract and they didn't pay attention to it because they didn't have any training on it, and then they had a bad outcome, or, life happened and those clients will come into us and they fully grasp what they're getting, right?
I mean, they're fully appreciative of like, yes, this is important. And they're, able to prioritize things very well. sometimes I almost think when the younger. Residents who may have more information. Right now they [00:18:00] think, yeah, there's these issues, but it'll never happen.
Right? Like these problems will never come up. and then, five years later they're like, oh man, I really should have paid more attention to that paragraph. So that's the biggest distinction for me, I think there's obviously more information out there. There's these podcasts and, you know, videos and all these great things.
But I still think sometimes getting. Physicians to act on it and to actually take that next step. sometimes it's hard. It's kinda like people going to, I don't know, their annual well check right, is they don't do it even though they know they should, sometimes. Mm-hmm. it feels like that's us on the law side.
That's such a great insight. 'cause I do think sometimes as physicians we get into this mindset of, well, we've been through medical school, we've been through residency, we should know how to do this. And I'm not necessarily gonna say it's a pride thing, but I think it's one of those things that sometimes you don't really recognize that there is help available and you should take the help because.
you know, you had briefly talked about this idea of specialization. we're good in our own specialty, we're good in our little sandbox, but that doesn't mean we know everything in the next [00:19:00] sandbox. And so we definitely need to ask for help. But the other thing I think that you touched on was you've seen so many situations.
You have seen so many different. Unusual situations that you're much better able to prepare physicians, residents for what that contract should look like once you know what their priorities are. I also really think it's cool that as you are working with these eventualities, with these residents and physicians that.
You are making sure that they've thought about what they want and what they need before they walk into that. I think that's so important as you're seeing the rise of unions, and this is one of those things that I think we're seeing more of. You know, as we're getting into this newer generation.
Are you seeing contract language about unionization for any of these residents? Is that something you're seeing more of? The unions that are representing residents, we don't dabble in that at all. So we're working with them post training. So that's kind of right half the question.
But, there are folks that are going into situations where either their, current [00:20:00] employment is moving towards a union, right. Or they're entering into contracts that the union is helping out with already. I think it's roughly eight to 10%. That's the statistic that's out there of the number of physicians across the country that are in a union.
So it's still very much the minority position. I think they can be helpful. I think there's also potential for them to be problematic because we feel that physicians are so unique on an individual level that it's hard to say, let's create a rule that applies to 300 doctors, right?
Or 300 physicians, because some of them wanna take call more than others and some wanna take less. And someone to maximize compensation and someone. Work life balance. And we've had clients that have been a part of unions that really like them. We've had clients that have been part of unions that, that really didn't feel like they were doing a good job.
So I think it's probably too early for us to have a strong opinion on that. and I think it just depends on the person and where they're at. Mm-hmm. I wonder if that's a trend you're gonna see more of as maybe you see that increase. It'll be interesting to see how that's reflected in contracts and how the larger entities are gonna perceive that.
One of the things that I think you [00:21:00] also do at resolve that is really an interesting concept to me, is the concept of renegotiation. Mm-hmm. Is the idea that you have physicians that are at some point in their careers going to want to renegotiate a contract. Mm-hmm. What are the common sort of impetus for people to come in and wanna do that?
it's usually one of two things. It's either one, they've been taking too much call, right? Or something with the job isn't working well for them, and rather than leaving or burning out or something, they're trying to fix it. So I think, a really good idea, right, is try to fix the solution if you can get to a solution, if you can.
The other side is that they just feel like they're underpaid. They haven't gotten a raise in 10 years, nothing's happened. they're under contract. Everything seems to be going well, but they're just, curious. Right on. What is the current data say for my specialty? And so we've, unfortunately had, some clients come through where they haven't looked at their contract in 10 years and they're severely underpaid.
Right? Where it's like their conversion factor should be 75 or 80 and it's at 60 and they're producing 10,000 plus work over reviews a year. And so [00:22:00] you can do the math on that. They're short a big number for 10 years, right? Yeah. And that pretty frustrated. we've had some. On the other side of the coin where we do look at comp and we're like, yeah, the organization's been updating that fairly frequently.
So you're okay on that part, but maybe let's get you that scribe or that a PP support that you want, or more admin time for charting or, whatever it is. Let's try to make the quality of life better because we again want you to be there. and systems and employers want that too. I mean, they don't want to have to.
You know, recruit and retain is really hard, right? It's expensive. There's not enough physicians in the country and so to replace you is a really big number. So they almost always, in university, they'd rather save a relationship if they can. So we encourage anybody that's in a contract, to take a look at it, have it reviewed it,make sure it's okay.
It might be the count might be fine, it might need an adjustment, but at least and you can have that peace of mind. I love how when you were talking about that, 'cause I think so often when we talk about contracts, we talk about physician employment and what that contract looks like, and you mentioned it.
Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] I think the two most common denominators that make people go look are money and call. Mm-hmm. But, yep. It's really also quality of life. When you talk about being able to negotiate a scribe or negotiate an extra employee to do X, being able to make that day in your practice look like what you want it to look like, and the fact that you can actually use contract negotiation to do that.
But the other thing I think you do, because. All you do is you are giving physicians such solid comparative data. You look at other people in the same situation. It's like, this is what X is doing and what you want and what this other physician wants may look a little different, but that physician's experience can help to inform yours.
And so this, I'm gonna help you achieve what that work should look. I also think it's really interesting because when you talk about the fact that it's hard to replace physicians, sometimes we don't think of ourselves that way. Sometimes we don't really see ourselves as being a valuable commodity. I would say one of the biggest [00:24:00] things I tell when I have especially young female medical students that are going into residency, it's like, you must remember that you are a commodity.
You are valuable as especially, and you know all physicians are, but I think there are some patients who seek out female physicians, preferentially, that if they've gone to the effort to educate you and train you, there are patients who will seek you out, and as a result, it's much more to their benefit to keep you.
And so they're going to work to keep you. So if you're walking into a contract negotiation with very solid data about what you should be getting or if you're able to say to somebody. Ex physician negotiated a scribe or an extra workup or something like that. Those are things that you can ask for and don't feel bad about asking.
So a lot of times do you think physicians feel bad about asking? Yes, it is. Not all of them, but I would say 70%. we don't track that data, so I don't know for sure, but it feels like seven out of 10 come in going, oh, you know. I'm getting this. if I'm coming from [00:25:00] residency to the real world, right?
My income is gonna jump six to 10 times, right? Mm-hmm. Mean it's a big number, right? And so they automatically feel like, wow. Am I really worth that much? Well, the answer one is yes, or they wouldn't be paying it to you, right? and then two, it almost trickles down to everything else. It's like, well, because of the increase in income, I shouldn't ask for all these other things that are important to me.
I think female physicians for sure, right? I mean, we know now that it's about 50% of med schools are female, right? Mm-hmm. So the split is becoming more even. So the workforce will shift to being hopefully 50 50 soon. But yeah, there are patients that will seek out, right Spanish speakers, or there are patients that will seek out females, right?
And so you have to know. Not only what your specialty brings and what your billing, and what your collections are gonna be from that, but also that your practice might ramp up quicker, right? Or you may have higher volumes because of other, things, about your demographic or soft skills that you have.
So I just think it's important to know all those things and to know what the employer has for options too. I mean, if they've got 10 applicants for a job, your leverage is less than if they have [00:26:00] one. and nationally we know there's a shortage, but there might be certain markets right in smaller micro markets where supply is not in your favor.
And I think it's also important to know that. Oh my goodness. Yes. I, think it's really cool that you see that as well, because I think in my work, I definitely see that physicians don't really wanna engage, especially in negotiation or conflict process number one.
'cause I think the process scares them. But number two, it is that sense of, I shouldn't be asking, I shouldn't be asking, I don't wanna rock the boat. I don't wanna make trouble. Instead of owning the fact. No, no, no. These are things that you've worked for. These are things that you should have and it's totally okay to ask.
and especially if you have the power and the data to negotiate. I think that's so powerful. So I think it's interesting that you see the same thing, but I'm also really hopeful that because companies like Resolve exist and that as the awareness. Of your company increases that people will make use of those services.
That's really what I hope will happen, and I think that's going to make for happier doctors. I mean, I think that's the thing. When doctors feel like they are [00:27:00] recognized and fairly reimbursed and can build a workplace environment that really reflects what their priorities are, they're much more likely to stay where they are.
They're going to be better providers, they're going to have happier patients. I mean, it really does travel the whole way around. If you could say, so you have a physician who they're wanting to come in, they're wanting to, renegotiate a contract. Is there any one piece of advice you give them before that process starts?
Well, if you're gonna renegotiate, we always think that you should have access to your data, so we know historically what you've been doing because the employer's certainly gonna look back on that and we wanna make sure we're doing that as well. So it's not only your contract that we wanna take a peek at and understand, but it's also what have you done?
How long have you been there? How long have you plan to stay there? Right? Are there any things that are unique about you? Right? So we're kind of just collecting all that information. Like an h and p, right? Like you're just getting all the background information so you can know what advice to give. I think that's probably more important in a renegotiation as opposed to a resident who has no history, right?
It's you're coming outta [00:28:00] training, right? We know what that profile looks like. So that would be the one thing is do your homework upfront. Try to collect that information if you can, so you're ready to have those conversations. Yeah, I think that's such a great point because I do think, unfortunately, there's a lot of us that don't know.
We don't know what our charges are. We don't know what our RVs are. You know, if we're trying to think about a renegotiation, we really don't know what we're pulling down, and as a result, it makes it much harder to approach that process. Do you have any words of wisdom for residents that are looking to look at that first contract and getting out into practice for the first time?
yeah. So your first contract is sometimes your most important one. 'cause it's gonna set the tone for, every renewal or every renegotiation that you have. And so I would say definitely don't sell yourself short in the first contract. if you wanna be in a certain location, which is almost always the case, right?
We know the physicians pick their job based on geography usually. and so if you need to be in Miami or Denver or whatever city, go out and talk to all the practices, right? If you can there's probably some. Upper limit on that, [00:29:00] depending on specialty, but you should hopefully have three or four really good offers right in that area.
Mm-hmm. So you can then have that leverage and have that side by side data, to know what you're getting into and, try to make that informed decision about long term, what does this look like for me? And, hopefully different practice types too. Right? I don't think it hurts to have one private practice and one employed and kind of see what that trajectory looks like so you can make again, that decision.
because oftentimes comp and autonomy are that conflict with each other, right? It's like the more freedom you get and the more ownership you get, the less guarantee you get upfront. And so it doesn't mean long-term over 10 years, they don't end up matching each other. It just means what are your, what's your risk tolerance, early on.
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And also too, I think it's a really great thing because there are still, independent private practices. Mm-hmm. That path might look different because then you're talking about a path to partnership. And so Is that something that you are interested in being more the captain of the ship as opposed to someone who's coming in and working and I think as.
Maybe physicians are getting more educated about business [00:30:00] models. I'm hoping they're gonna be less afraid to go into that private practice because I feel like that's a, motivation for a lot of doctors who just said, I just wanna practice medicine and I really don't wanna have any role in any kind of management.
I think you're seeing physicians who are more willing to engage in that process of management, and therefore they wanna be on that ownership track. Most physicians, or I guess a lot of physicians tend to not stay with their first job too. A lot of times that first job is not their last job. they may spend five years at that job and fight, okay, maybe this is not what I'm looking for.
And so they're having to move on. and I think because of that, like you said, that first contract is so important. 'cause that's their foray. Into their first profession, in their professional life. And I think that's really, really big that you're making a good point of that. That contract means a lot because it's their first.
I'm sure a lot of doctors who are also looking for partnership that are going on that track as well and having to negotiate what that looks like. Yeah, no, we do, private practice isn't dead. We always joke about that, that even if it's a minority, there's still people that really wanna have control.
They want to buy into the surgery center. They want to, hire their own [00:31:00] staff and, run all that stuff the way they want to have their work schedule, you know, not dictated by an administrator or somebody else. And so I think, The pendulum will swing, right? I mean, it's gone Heavy employment, I think it will eventually come back, like in everything else, right?
we tend to find the middle eventually. and so, I don't think it's dead. I think it's, certainly a good option. I think there are certain specialties that, you know, really, benefit from being in private practice and certain specialties that don't necessarily fall as traditionally into the health system model or the employed model.
So, yeah, I think when you're negotiating with private practice, it's a little bit different. it's hopefully a colleague and a business partner that you're talking to, not. A CEO or administrator or recruiter that might not be there in three years. Mm-hmm. and so you've gotta treat those conversations slightly different.
I think it's really important for physicians to understand finance, you know, at some level, like how to read a profit and loss statement and, what a balance sheet means, and, those other important items that go into it where you're never gonna have to do that if you work for HCA or, you know, large, health system.
So definitely differences there. And I think both can be very good. Right. [00:32:00] For individual physicians, it just, again, depends on kind of what they want. I'm hoping too, and as you said, I agree with you. I think that pendulum is starting to swing back. You're going to see more physicians wanna be in an ownership situation.
I think as you start to see physicians get more, you're gonna see more, you know, physicians with MBAs and jds, you're gonna see them engage more with that and actually educating other physicians in those areas, and you're gonna see more physicians willing to take that responsibility. Yeah, I would agree.
I think there's so much more information right out there right now and people are starting that they may have gone into employment and decided, Hey, it's not for me, and they're coming back out of it. So, yeah, I think the data should skew back a little bit the next few years.
I agree. Absolutely. Kyle, if people want to find resolve, if they are interested in getting any kind of contract or negotiation help, how would they find you? Yeah, I mean, resolve.com is the easiest way. Go to the website. you can check that out. you mentioned that there's a lot of, endorsement of [00:33:00] the idea, right, of what we're doing.
And so there's certainly state medical organizations, there's your national societies, right? Well, it should have information from us on there as well. So I mean, you hopefully we'll find us in a lot of different spots, but the website would be where you'd go to create an account, start that process of getting access to the data, and doing those things to empower yourself.
So, that's the best way to do it. One of the things, and I just wanna close with this because I love this so much, when I got your bio, and so one of the things that you're passionate about is helping physicians to level the playing field. Mm-hmm. That you really want physicians to have the tools, the knowledge, and the power to actually negotiate the work life reimbursement.
That they should have. And I love it that you're doing the work and I think the work that you're doing is so helpful and so important. And I really kind of hope that as companies like Resolve Gain more prominence that physicians will start to feel less conflict avoidant, that they'll actually feel like they can engage in the process.
Conflict isn't always a bad thing. Conflict can [00:34:00] actually yield better and bigger things if we're willing to engage. So I really appreciate the work that you're doing. Well, thank you. That's very kind. We love doing it and it's what we do all day. Sounds good. Well, Kyle, thank you for your time. Thank you for being on the podcast.
It's been great. Thanks for having me. Awesome. Peaceful warriors. Thank you so much for being with us on Scalpel and Sword. Please join us next time, but until then, be at Peace.