From Debt to Dollars: Assessing a General Surgeon's Career Value

Abstract

Introduction: Surgical residents make decisions that may have a dramatic impact on career earnings based off conceptions regarding future income potential. This study examines the effect of debt burden, repayment plan, and practice setting on a general surgeon's career value.

Methods: Debt levels, repayment plans, and practice setting were considered to model a surgeon's career value using net present value (NPV) across 35 scenarios. The NPV was calculated using salary, education debt, yearly spending, and a discount rate of 5%. Salary data were obtained from the Medical Group Management Association, student debt information from the Association of American Medical Colleges, and tax and household spending data from U.S. government records. Assumptions included no gaps in training, no prior debt, single-person household, and career duration of 35 y.

Results: A general surgeon's salary adequately repays debt burdens from $100,000-$300,000 over 10-25 y, regardless of repayment plan or practice setting. Practice setting decreased career value for academic surgeons when debt burden and repayment plan were held constant: the NPV for an academic surgeon was $382,000 compared to $500,000 for a nonacademic surgeon with the same debt and repayment plan. Debt burden repaid through unsubsidized and income-based repayment plans reduced NPV for all surgeons, while subsidized plans increased NPV. The projected NPV for all scenarios ranged $2.35M-$2.87 M.

Conclusions: Though the modeled scenarios do not account for prior debt burden, major expenditures, or increases in yearly household spending beyond national averages, surgery residents should be aware that general surgery remains a financially feasible career.

Keywords: Career value; Educational debt; General surgery income; Net present value; Practice setting; Student loans.