[Editor's Note: I often have doctors who have just become interested in personal finance or who would like to move out of medicine, or who would like to move into administration ask about getting an MBA. The article is written by a freelance writer, Vera Marie Reed, with whom I have no financial relationship.]
What is an MD MBA Degree Program and How Long Do They Take?
A MD/MBA is joint program where students receive both a Medical Degree and a Masters of Business Administration Degree upon completion. These programs focus on integrating standard medical training with managerial, financial and technical expertise. MD MBA Programs typically take five years to complete.
Is an MD MBA Worth It?
An MBA might seem like a degree only meant for the entrepreneurs of our age but the degree is actually very flexible and adaptable to a number of fields. The degree is particularly helpful to use in one of the most lucrative industries in the world. The medical field is a constantly evolving and growing industry that not only requires healthcare knowledge but also business knowledge. As the healthcare industry continues to change by way of care packages and insurance policies for patients, many doctors are seeking to learn the same business knowledge and skills that MBA graduates learn. In a trillion dollar industry having some sort of knowledge about accounting, investing, and marketing is more than helpful especially for physicians looking to start their own practice.
MBA graduates looking to enter the medical field will find that there is a huge demand for their services especially for administrative positions. There are many different opportunities for business graduates to enter the field from consulting to financial managers. In addition to bringing business-savvy know-how, MBAs are able to bridge the gap between patient and doctor communication by bringing new forms of technology such as mobile applications.
What Can You Do with An MD MBA?
According to a 2013 Corporate Recruiters Survey, about 89 percent of health care employers planned on hiring MBA graduates. Healthcare is one of the few industries that continually sees steady growth in profit and employment year after year. MBA students are primed and groomed to analyze such data to develop the best moves to make and manage profits. There are many lucrative career opportunities for MBA students in the healthcare industry.
Consulting has become a recent necessity for many major providers and private clinics. New changes in healthcare policies has progressed the medical field to seek advice from more business-minded professionals about changing strategies and operations within their practices.
Of all the skills most in need of physicians, management skills seems to be one of the most desired and applied. Many MBA graduates find that their organizational management knowledge and general entrepreneurial skills they learned through their business
courses has helped them immensely in working in healthcare. In addition, more physicians are considering larger, group practices rather than attempting opening a practice solo. This allows for more budget to be considered to hiring administrative staff and others to run the business aspects of the operation so that the doctors can focus on their patients’ needs more attentively. While MBA graduates interested working in the healthcare industry can look into a number of opportunities for their careers, many move into hospital administration.
MD MBA Salary
Hospital administrators are one of the highest paid positions in the medical industry. According to the New York Times, the average annual salary of a hospital administrator was $237,000, about $50,000 more than the average clinical physician who on average earns $185,000. Usually the field is headed by MBA graduates who have the business knowledge to operate and run a major organization such as a hospital. Hospital administrators do more than just delegate tasks to staff, instead this position requires someone that understands how to run essentially a corporation and multi-level organization. A hospital administrator considers hiring on all levels, budgeting for the entire hospital, marketing strategies, operations management, among a myriad of other responsibilities that mirror that of a CEO’s at a major corporation.
MBA graduates have the benefits of understanding how a major organization runs and is trained in understanding how to maintain and increase profits. However, they do not have the thorough understanding of the medical field and often do not implement the same considerations that seasoned physicians might implement. Thus, more and more hospitals look for possible candidates for such a position that have earned both degrees or a dual degree.
Why to Consider a MD MBA Program
As the medical field becomes increasingly competitive, many prospective students are not just looking for a top M.D. program but also a top MBA program at universities. Many physicians who start their own practices also need not just medical background to care for their patients but also entrepreneurial skills such as managing, accounting, and finance to ensure their practice thrives. Many universities are finding ways to satisfy students’ ambitions and creating MD/MBA programs that combine the two prestigious post- graduate degrees with the number of programs rising from six to 65 in the last two decades. The degree allows students to complete both degrees in four to five years. Combining the two degrees also helps lower the costs of earning the degrees separately as both advanced programs have seen rising tuition in the last couple of years. More and more students take on academic debt because of the cost of just one degree. However, a dual degree can eliminate the need to look into more years of financial aid. There are also many financial aid opportunities for dual degree earners such as specialized grants and scholarships.
The dual degree program gives medical students not just the necessary medical knowledge and practices but also grooms them to become top business leaders in their field. For example, Harvard’s joint MD/MBA program has opened up numerous opportunities for students that single degree holders might not possess after graduation. Many of their graduates go on to open several private practices and medical organizations. The skills of caring for patients they learned in their MD program courses, but the business skills they acquired to make profit and progress was from the MBA courses of the program. According to an article from The Atlantic, many medical students find that earning an MBA has helped them make innovative and risk-taking decisions that benefited their hospitals. This calculating and risky decision comes from business thinking, not necessarily the kind of thinking physicians are trained to do.
The healthcare industry is one of the top fields to enter for lucrative and positive career growth. Not only do you contribute to the health and well-being of others, satisfying an emotional need to help others, but you also are able to have a successful financial career. Whether you are an an MBA graduate or a dual degree holder, the skills that business courses instill are clearly beneficial for working in the healthcare industry.
What do you think? Have you obtained an MBA? Have you found it to be worth it or not? Did you do an MD/MBA program? What was it like? Have you considered a typical or even an executive MBA? Why or why not? Comment below!
I had a friend from college (who was much smarter than me) do an MD/MBA degree, which was not very common back in 2003. He ended up not doing a residency and went straight into hospital administration.
I have another acquaintance who went to medical school with me but didn’t do residency. Instead, he went on to get an MHA (Masters in Health Administration). I believe he is also in hospital administration.
My father has a PhD in Engineering and also has an MBA. At the time when he was getting his MBA (years after the PhD), he told me “Everyone should get an MBA.” However, once I finished medical school he advised me: “Don’t do it unless you have something you plan to do with it.”
I think the MD/MBA dual degree is interesting, but I wonder what % of MD/MBAs actually practice clinical medicine. Also I wonder how much the MD/MBA helps over just an MBA from a top tier (well-connected) school.
This is a “pro” piece that reads almost like an advertisement. I think you should run a “con” piece. More tuition and extending training is not a trivial decision for a physician. An MBA is one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) degrees you can buy (per year). These degrees are cash cows for schools, with online degree programs extending their “catchment area” dramatically. Often I see people pursue more education as the “default” option because they are “lost” or dissatisfied, but have no real end goal. I hesitate to use the word “scam” but some of graduate degree marketing materials invoke that sentiment. The names of top tier schools easily get thrown around (Harvard, Stanford, etc) but the great majority of degrees will obviously not be from these institutions and perhaps have less valuable. A huge component of the degree is networking/socializing; many of the tangible/analytic skills taught during the degree are learned as well (or perhaps better) through entering the workforce and getting real-life experience. The pros and cons should be weighed very carefully for an MD before pursuing another graduate degree for $100k+.
I was hoping any Con arguments would be covered in the discussion in the comments. So thank you for pointing out those downsides of getting an MBA.
CanadianOutlaw’s point, “…many of the tangible/analytic skills taught during the degree are learned as well (or perhaps better) through entering the workforce and getting real-life experience,” is a really good one.
One doesn’t come out of a MBA program ready to be a “practitioner”. One comes out (hopefully) semi-adequately prepared to step into a good job in a consulting firm, a big corporation, etc
Very interesting article. As a practicing sub-specialty surgeon I had debated getting an MBA since starting practice 4 years ago. For those of you who might be interested in more specifics regarding the options available to practicing docs, the pros/cons of each I wrote about it here to help me process through it myself:
This link above is some sort of scam/virus – don’t follow it. It tried to install something on my computer and my antivirus kicked in.
Don’t know if it is bad or not, but I removed it.
One of my masters degrees is an MBA (in finance from University of Washington)… and I’m perplexed about the synergy someone would get from a joint MBA/MD degree.
A handful of points:
1. An MBA degree is essentially a upscale version of an undergraduate business degree in my opinion and experience. There’s a year of “core” courses that give you a couple of accounting classes, a couple of management classes, a statistics course, a business law class, an intro to finance, a quantitative methods class, etc. Then there’s a second year where student takes elective classes–often concentrated in an area like finance or marketing or accounting. In terms of knowledge and content, my belief is a good rigorous undergraduate business major is pretty close. (I have an undergraduate degree in accounting–what I needed to have in order to become a CPA–that was just as useful as my MBA in finance.)
2. You get a networking benefit of course–and this counts for a lot–but you MDs should already have that from medical school and your residency. (Maybe also from volunteer activities, employers, etc.)
3. If you go to a top tier school, you should get additional “personal branding” benefit… but though I am a big believer in personal branding and “credentializing”, I think someone with an MD already has that.
FWIW, I’m glad I have an MBA. It was a requirement to get a consulting job at Arthur Andersen 35 years ago. But it seems like a weird degree to pair with an MD (or a DDS).
P.S. Another option would be to get a masters in some specialized “business-y” area. Sometimes those programs take one year rather than two years. Regularly, they get offered in a way that’s practical for working adults. And in many times, they let you go really deep into a subject area. Something like a masters of science in finance…
Also, I think the stated salary for the MBA grad for hospital administration might be a distorted. More transparency would be the range of salary and number of years at the position. Most MBA start as analyst of some type for hospital administrative position and work their way up. Of cos, once you get to the top after XX amount of years then your compensation is much higher, but I don’t think they get out of school and start with a 237K salary.
This is a great discussion for a blog such as this one. I graduated with a MD/MBA in a joint 4 year program offered by my medical school and the affiliated graduate school. It was a great opportunity in that the six of us in the class all received tremendous amounts of scholarship money to in essence pay for the MBA. As someone with a keen interest in the business of medicine I viewed this as a “can’t lose deal”. The majority of the classes took place prior to starting medical school and in the summer between the first and second year, thus rarely interfering with any medical studies. I find this important in that we were consistently informed we were doctors getting a business background as opposed to business men/women who just happened to be physicians in training. Since completing the program all of us are practicing or finishing subspecialty training and still in clinical medicine.
I went into the MBA program with the specific goal of working in the administrative field of medicine. I didn’t find the classes exceptionally helpful (I thought my undergrad classes were stronger from a pure academic standpoint), but what I did get was an inside look into great leaders in different industries and an appreciation for the decision complexities administrators have to make. After seeking out an administrative mentor I realized that it wasn’t what I was truly looking for in a career, however, I never once regretted getting my MBA.
It was a great decision for me in that it
1) Was free and an inexpensive degree is almost always worth it.
2) Is an extra 3 letters after my name to show those that I have interest outside of clinical medicine.
3) Allows others to view me as an authority on business/financial matters.
Most importantly it has continued to allow me to focus on what I originally intended to do with the knowledge by combining aspects of business/finance and medicine. Over the last 2-3 years I have been able to reach those in the medical field who have little to no understanding of basic business practices and financial principles and help them better understand their situation through our wealth management firm, Navigo Wealth Management.
Would I be thinking the same way about these things if I had an extra $100k in debt because of this degree? You bet b/c that’d be an expensive lesson to realize I didn’t want to do administrator, but I’m thankful for the MBA I have and the doors it has opened. When deciding on rather or not to pursue the degree, each person needs to weigh the pros and cons with their career goals and see if it’s the right decision for them financial cost and all.
We don’t need more administrators in healthcare. In fact, we need less. In the U.S. there are 10 administrators for every 1 doctor:
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/policy-ten-administrators-for-every-one-us-doctor-092813#1
That is what happens when the government gets involved and starts passing bloated bureaucratic nonsense (more and more administrators are needed to comply with it). I’m going to refrain from writing more and just go and take my blood pressure medicine now.
…but is an MBA worth it for a DO? 😉
Also:
– any thoughts as to programs outside of dual-degree projects, e.g. part-time, online, or night programs?
– executive MBA vs other types?
– comparison in effect or potential job utilization to an MHA degree?
I’m personally interested in adding some sort of business, financial, or management aspect to my future work and am interested in how exactly to go about that once the time comes, if I even end up needing a formal diploma beyond my medical degree.
MBA Dreams, post above, #3 has a few of your questions answered. Click their link.
Based on experience in another masters degree (one in taxation from Golden Gate University), I think part-time and night programs can work really well if you get the opportunities in your day job to contextualize material you’re learning. They’re sort of pooh-poohed by the full-time students, I guess. But you might end up with a better understanding of the stuff you’re learning.
Online programs from a school that also offers bricks-and-mortar programs probably can do a pretty good job. But the conventional wisdom says it’s tougher to learn in an online environment. I briefly taught in the online masters in taxation program at Golden Gate University (a really big tax school) and it was just common knowledge that online students had way more trouble than students who actually came to a class etc. BTW, one could always point to a small handful of students successful in either (any?) format…
Finally, Kyle says below that the Internet and solid texts are all you need to get the same skills as an MBA. I don’t think that’s true. I’m not going to engage in a debate here about that. But dialogue between professors and students and among bright students adds to understanding. And that’d be true even if one reads the same textbooks as a class or workshop uses.
The MBA is certainly something I’m still considering. I consider myself an excellent student when I care about the material and require little in the way of formal classroom training to learn a topic (hmm…reminds me of medical school doing everything via online classroom so I could sleep in!). The internet and solid texts are all one needs to learn the skills of an MBA. The networking can be done by attending conferences, tapping old friends and resources, as well as reaching out to your own hospital administration if you haven’t burned that bridge already.
So why pay all this money for three little letters? I have already bought a few books, and a partner in my group is taking a well respected executive mba course at Auburn. He could certainly help me self pace the material and topics. He certainly tells me that his connections grow quickly during the weeks he attends required in classroom time. But is it worth it?
My thoughts: If you are going to start something yourself or open your own practice or want to really run your larger practice, and are great at making friends/social connections without hesitating to stress the relationship with numerous requests for help in various areas. I think the degree is unnecessary. Just read and practice the material and get a mentor.
If you want to climb a hospital/biotech company ladder I think the three little letters are often necessary. Read any literature on the crap hospital admin shoves down contracted physician groups throats. “They” consider themselves different than physicians in most hospital structures. They want to save money, cut costs, and aren’t worried about “wealthy physicians” (hospital admin, not biotech). I don’t know that I would want to leave a respectable field that I feel great about daily practicing, to take on a job that I’m not sure that I could influence the entire chain of command from middle management to lead with their heart. You aren’t just going to be the CEO overnight and make things different. So, maybe biotech is the only career that I would personally consider outside of my own practice. And biotech is a lot of risk for the reward. The connections required would be huge compared to working your way up hospital admin. And that’s where an MBA at a great school like an IVY league or Stanford is actually needed to help you take off quickly. But I bet there are more stories of lower pay than a physician with hospital admin jobs and biotech. So if your only goal is money, and your not in primary care, it might be worth sticking to your specialty.
What are your thoughts?
I made the transition from full time clinician to full time hospital administrator over an 11-year period. My “business” degree was an MPH (masters in public health), which did give me the credibility I needed. Emerging physician executives have several degrees to choose from today: MBA, MMM (masters in medical management), and MHA (masters in hospital administration).
Lacking that, ongoing coursework in administrative and management topics through the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) and other organizations can help prepare one to make the transition. I’ve even seen some job postings specifically requesting candidates with the CPE (Certified Physician Executive) designation, which is obtained through the Certifying Commission in Medical Management.
My MPH has been very helpful, although I would probably seek an MMM or MBA if I were to do it today. My program was through the Medical College of Wisconsin and was completed over three years while practicing full time, mostly online, with face to face interactions once or twice a year. There are numerous online and part-time executive MBA programs available today, some of which are designed specifically for physicians.
The combined MD/MBA is a viable option, but I would not recommend adding significantly to student loan debt to complete such a program. To me, it makes more sense to get into clinical practice and then cash-flow the process once in practice, if possible.
Thank you for the information about the AAPL. I have been considering the CPE, but I don’t know anyone who has pursued it or if it is a respectable program providing essential and marketable skills for healthcare management. It is a lot less expensive than an MBA for sure. Do you remember what kind of positions listed the CPE as a preferred designation?
I was looking at positions for hospital or health system chief medical officer. Today that would probably include chief quality officer and chief medical information officer, also. The CPE demonstrates education across a wide variety of business and management courses, and experience in talent managment, financial management, business practices and leadership skills the way it is currently designed.
Hi Kimberlee
I agree with John’s excellent assessment. The CPE offers equivalent coursework, takes less time and is cheaper than an MBA. I have seen quite a few CMO, CIO and CQO positions that now list the CPE (along with MBA, MMM, MHA, etc) as a preferred qualification. Many organizations are recognizing the CPE as a valid credential. I know a few MDs that have both the MBA and CPE through AAPL (many of the courses are transferable) but I think having both is overkill. I chose the MBA as I wanted to make a career switch to finance ( I just started a position as VP Finance/CFO for a DME company) but I would still highly recommend the CPE for physicians looking for leadership positions in hospitals, clinics, pharma, etc
Whenever I hear the phrase “top program” or “top doctor” I have to suppress the strong urge to roll my eyes. It makes it difficult to take anything else the writer says seriously.
Every time I hear someone has an MBA it makes me chuckle. Reminds me of this commercial I saw as a kid. Everyone has an MBA now it seems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcoDV0dhWPA
I did my MBA while I was already what is called in business a “middle management”- a Division Chief. I brought my own issues/unsolved problems into the classroom, and was able to solve a lot of them by reading books and articles on general management.
I was surprised to see a lot of fresh college grads in my class because I always thought that an MBA is something you need to get once you have work and managerial experience to make it meaningful
I graduated in finance in undergrad. I was accepted into an MD program and subsequently applied/accepted into their MD/MBA program at one of the Ivy League schools. After talking with several MD/MBA’s, I ultimately never enrolled in the MBA program. The advice I received was that unless I wanted to pursue a career outside of medicine (administration, private equity, etc), then my undergrad finance degree was sufficient. Now nearly 10 years into private practice, I fully agree. My finance undergrad degree has been immensely helpful to me and to our group of physicians, but I doubt that the MBA would have given me much further benefit. If I was looking to get onto a corporate board of directors or get into consulting, then I’m sure the “MBA” degree would be quite helpful from a status standpoint, but if you are wanting to practice medicine, I don’t think an MBA is worth doing (cost and time as mentioned above). I would highly encourage pre-med undergrads to graduate in finance–which in my opinion is way more useful than endless biochem classes, way more interesting, way more applicable to life and to the practice of medicine…and much easier on the GPA! I loved my finance classes and were a piece of cake compared to the cut-throat science classes.
Con:
1) The financial costs of an MBA are huge. 2 years lost and $100k is a lot of money considering you can take those 2 years you spent studying for your MBA and instead moonlight or work more. I would bet total value lost is about over $150k over those 2 years. Compounded over 30 years at 5% growth and the potential loss is close to $650k. This doesn’t even account for the inability of possibly building up relationships in your practice or growing your practice since you are too busy working and studying for your degree.
2) Just because you get a management position does not mean you will make more money. I know plenty of docs who make more money practicing medicine then the CMO (chief medical officer), COO (chief operational officer) and even the CEO of the hospital.
3) An MBA is completely useless if you don’t have a plan for it. Just having an MBA will not help you see patients better, bill better, comply with regulations better, it will make you no extra money, and teaches you nothing about personal finance. On the other hand you will be awesome at making excel spreadsheets.
4) For middle management jobs in medicine, an MBA is unnecessary. You don’t need to have an MBA to run an office, be chair of a department, or even a regional director of a large group. The MBA may help get you in, but I see and know several physicians in leadership positions without those 3 letters. This includes being a CMO. May of these roles can be learned on the job as you advance in your career.
Pros:
1) If you have the right plan a MBA can help you switch out of clinical medicine into something different. For some physicians this is a great strategy to still make good money in a 9-5 job with much lower liability.
2) An MBA in a prestigious school will get you connections. This in my opinion is one of the most valuable benefits of a prestigious MBA. You can potentially get access to investors who can help you fund a project that can be more lucrative than practicing medicine. Or you can get involved in someone else’s project potentially making you a lot of money.
3) Having an MBA pads your resume and may very well get you an administrative position when competing with non MBA physicians.
Discussion: Unless you have a specific plan and looking for a way out of clinical medicine I highly recommend not wasting your time or your money on an MBA.
I have an MBA and I’m glad I do. It got me my current job. I am much wealthier because I’m able to assess and monitor investments in a more rigorous fashion. It isn’t necessary for everyone but it has opened a lot of doors for me. Most of the benefit is the demanding work I did to earn that degree from a top tier business school though – not the degree itself.
Was curious on perspectives regarding the different pathways to earn an MBA. Once an MBA graduate, is there a designation on the MBA diploma / degree / credential that denotes the path the degree was earned? For example, if one were to go the “Top Business School” MBA, would the online degree diploma be qualified as an Online degree, vs. the traditional main campus MBA, vs. the satellite campus MBA? If that were the case, I would think the perception, and perhaps the full benefits, of the “online MBA” would be much lower than the main campus, more traditional version, etc.
What about the future opportunities and educational differences between earning a “traditional” MBA vs. an online MBA vs. an “Executive” MBA?
I know that in my surgical subspecialty, a similar trend is becoming the practice. There are now different pathways to become board certified, and the shorter training “integrated” graduates are having more difficulties finding equivalent full-time, full-paying attending jobs…
I went a less traditional route and received a MHA and MBA via the military and Baylor University, the degrees are from Baylor. I had the opportunity to run a small primary care clinic in Germany, where my administrative education began when I asked “what are these RVUs we are being measured by, and where did they come from”. I was hooked on the dark side of medicine (admin) after that. At this point I am a Commander (CEO) of a small hospital, and with the degrees I also became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). I can say when I held a medical director position at another facility, and a primary care chief position with 800 staff and eight clinics, the degrees definitely helped. If they did not provide the answers I needed to tackle the positions more effectively, they laid the groundwork so I knew where to go as I continue to learn the art of administrative medicine, and whenever people are involved, there is some art to it. ACHE has allowed me to do some great networking in many different cities while continuing to learn from others. My debate now is staying in the military vs. the civilian side, tough on my family, but I love what I do and the people I work with taking care of service members, their families and retirees. The degrees also open doors more easily for consideration in senior administrative medical positions, sometimes at large medical centers they are requirements when the board is looking for a new CEO.
Thank you for your service!
I do have an MBA which I obtained before going into medicine. I don’t think you need the MBA “degree” as a doctor per se, but I do think most doctors should pursue some formal education in the MBA core disciplines (accounting, finance, management/leadership, business contracts, and maybe marketing). If you go into private practice these skills will be valuable. In particular, accounting is the language of business and a medical practice is a business, no matter how large or small. You *must* understand accounting in my opinion and it will serve well you in many areas of life. Having an MBA really opened my eyes as far as how business managers see things and how business decisions are made. So, I don’t think you need to drop $50-100K on tuition for the piece of paper to hang on the wall with all the others, but MBA knowledge is definitely relevant and valuable…maybe take extension school credits, short certificate program etc.
Hello, WCI readers. I have MBA tuition advice the medical students out there: try to use tuition benefit during residency and work on your MBA part-time, if your university allows. Most residents will feel too overwhelmed to do this, but you might be surprised how flexible schedules are with MBAs (my program had evening and weekend classes, and I asked my residency director and chief resident to not schedule call on Thursday nights and they were surprising open to this). The actual workload of an MBA program is light enough to be readily handled by anyone who has gotten through USMLE Steps 1-3.
In my 4-year residency, I was able to complete 4/5 of the MBA degree, tuition free. I finished up the last part as a young attending paying out of pocket (ouch), still, was a great investment for $15K. I am an insurance medical director in addition to clinical practice and can even understand most of WCI’s posts! 🙂
I’m going to take that as a compliment, whether you meant it that way or not!
Great tip though. Might also consider spousal benefits- many U of Utah med students send their spouse to work at the University for a big tuition discount.
Hi Rocdoc,
I am currently a rad resident am interested in doing a MBA. What is a tuition benefit from the university ? Do many residency programs support tuition ? Can you please elaborate.
Perhaps an MBA makes sense if it can be done for very low cost. MDs are already behind due to the costs of going to medical school plus years of being underpaid as residents. An MBA generally would mean more debt, longer postponing of earnings and fewer years spent working at the highest levels of earnings. Generally, education correlates positively with net worth; the notable exception are the MDs – yes they have high net worth on average, but not in relation to their incomes. I would worry that an MBA will be more of the same.
Nick de Peyster
I went back and got an MBA at a part time program 6 years after completing residency. I went to a state school so the tuition wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed the coursework, and feel it is a lot like medical school in many ways. You learn the language. You learn how to use lots of tools. Most of all, it is a way of thinking. I currently spend half my time in hospital administration, and feel the MBA has been a benefit. I certainly would not do it for increased pay…
I do not regret going back to school for this.
I am a 50-year-old surgeon at an academic medical center, and I just completed my MBA last year. I chose to pursue a healthcare focused MBA when my chairman appointed me to oversee quality improvement for a large department. I took on this administrative role after he agreed that the department would pay my tuition.
The MBA was rather time-consuming (not an executive MBA), taking about 15+ hours per week to do the readings, lots of blog posting, and writing. I think having the clinical experience made the paper writing quite a bit easier, pushing out 4-10 page papers in short order. In addition, we had weekend face-to-face meetings about every 10 weeks. Fortunately, my university offered the MBA and I did not have to do any traveling.
Is an MBA a requirement to be a physician leader? Absolutely not, but it helps. Students become immersed in the language of business (income and cash flow statements, lean methodology, project management, marketing, strategic planning, quality improvement, decision analysis, ROI, etc). Fortunately, my wife (also a physician) and kids were very patient during those years, and I am sure glad that it’s done with.
If you are desperate to make a career change, but aren’t sure how to do it, then an MBA at a top program will be extremely useful, albeit expensive. However, an attending physician will probably earn substantially less at his or her new job, at least initially.
If you are interested in financial services, consider Booth, Wharton, or NYU.
I am surprised that nobody has brought up the executive MBA. These are done by a good number of MDs who have been out in practice for awhile. I have been offered an opportunity to do one by my employer and they will support it. At this point in my career it will add something new to learn. It is possible that I will not put it to much use but it would also give me potential options if I decide to do something different in the future, in or out of medicine. The physicians to whom I have spoken have found it interesting and also gave them a chance to interact with professionals in a number of other careers.
I received my MBA from WGU for exactly $3920 (which includes the financial calculator I had to buy). I completed the degree in one “term period”, and thus it only cost me one term period. It was a lot of busy work, but it did change the way I look at the world and view opportunity. I started a couple successful businesses in undergrad and i wish I had the MBA before I started them, probably could have scaled them better. But it’s not Harvard, no connections were made, and im not a business wiz. But for $3920 I think it was a very cost-effective addition to my resume and knowledge base. I doubled in bio and econ so I already took a few of the classes, but nothing in business is terribly complex (at least at WGU), I would advise anyone with the interest and time to do it. I am more confident in my ability to negotiate and perform business functions. I think it distinguishes me from my peers in terms of leadership, and I think the letters will simply help me market myself as a leader. Its up to me how to monetize that (I have a few tricks waiting up my sleeve;)).