Your compensation reflects both the specialized expertise required for cardiac critical care medicine and the recognition that financial security allows physicians to focus on clinical excellence rather than economic anxiety. The total package combines competitive base salary with additional compensation for weekend coverage, subspecialty call responsibilities, and opportunities for administrative contributions. Beyond direct compensation, comprehensive benefits address healthcare security, retirement planning, professional development, and the substantial time off necessary to prevent burnout in high-acuity critical care practice.
Your guaranteed base salary is $446,000 annually for the first two years, providing income stability as you transition into the practice and build relationships with cardiac surgical colleagues, referring physicians, and the broader Ochsner system. This guarantee eliminates the productivity pressure common in many academic positions where physicians must constantly worry about RVU generation while simultaneously managing critically ill patients and teaching residents.
Weekend coverage responsibility adds $1,000 per weekend day to your compensation, recognizing the lifestyle impact of in-house or call coverage during time typically reserved for family and personal restoration. With the current schedule structure, this weekend differential adds approximately $24,000 annually, bringing your effective base compensation to $470,000. Unlike many academic centers where weekend work is considered part of base duties, Ochsner explicitly compensates the sacrifice of weekend time.
The compensation model allows adjustment of RVU targets when you take on administrative responsibilities such as quality improvement leadership, research mentorship, or program development work that Dr. Yockelson would welcome. Rather than forcing you to maintain full clinical productivity while adding administrative duties, the system recognizes that leadership contributions have value beyond billable procedures and patient encounters. This flexibility prevents the unsustainable expectation that physicians somehow compress 60 hours of clinical work and administrative leadership into standard work weeks.
If you choose to participate in subspecialty call teams beyond your standard cardiac critical care coverage, additional pager pay compensates the significant lifestyle impact. The heart and lung transplant team carries extra compensation recognizing that transplants occur unpredictably across all hours and days, requiring immediate in-house response regardless of personal plans. The liver transplant team receives particularly robust compensation since these cases occur predominantly during nights and weekends when you would otherwise be off.
The future schedule model, as the team grows toward 24/7 coverage with separate day and night shifts, will provide a week off post-call for physicians working the night coverage rotation. This structure acknowledges that sustained night shift work requires protected recovery time to maintain both clinical performance and personal health. Additionally, weekend moonlighting opportunities exist for physicians who want to increase income through additional shifts, with $2,000 compensation for 12-hour weekend shifts in the operating room. Nighttime moonlighting opportunities provide similar options for supplemental income, though Ochsner policy restricts these additional shifts to within the Ochsner system rather than allowing outside employment.
A $40,000 sign-on bonus helps offset the financial disruption of relocation and practice transition. This substantial up-front payment can cover the gap between your final paycheck from a previous employer and your first Ochsner compensation, address licensing and credentialing costs in Louisiana, or simply provide financial cushion during the stress of geographic relocation and practice start-up.
Relocation assistance provides up to $6,000 as a taxable bonus to help with moving expenses. While this amount may not cover the full cost of relocating a household across the country, it demonstrates institutional recognition that physicians should not bear the entire financial burden of moving to accept a position. The taxable structure means you will receive somewhat less than $6,000 after withholding, but the assistance remains meaningful for physicians making cross-country moves.
Your time off allocation of 38-44 days annually stands among the most generous in academic medicine, reflecting Ochsner's understanding that preventing physician burnout requires substantial protected time away from clinical demands. This is not the minimal two or three weeks common at many academic centers where physicians constantly feel behind and guilty about taking earned time off. With 38-44 days, you can take legitimate vacations with family, attend professional conferences without sacrificing personal time, and build in recovery periods after intense clinical weeks without depleting your time-off bank.
The vacation request system allows planning 12 months in advance, enabling you to commit to major family events, book flights during reasonable pricing windows, and coordinate time off with a spouse's work schedule well before the actual dates arrive. High-demand periods such as major holidays, school spring breaks, and summer weeks operate on a lottery system to ensure fair access rather than rewarding those quickest to submit requests or those with seniority. This equitable approach prevents the junior physician experience at many institutions where desirable time off always goes to senior partners.
The schedule creation process begins six months ahead with publication three months in advance, providing the long-range visibility necessary for planning both professional commitments and personal life. You will know your December schedule by June and your summer schedule before winter ends, allowing coordination with family vacations, children's activities, and the personal restoration time essential for sustainable high-acuity practice.
For physicians hired into full-time ICU coverage working two weeks per month rather than blended tracks, the time-off structure adjusts to reflect the different practice pattern. Rather than accruing traditional PTO, you would schedule yourself to the ICU according to your desired availability, building in time off for trips, vacations, or personal needs. If you wanted two consecutive weeks off in a particular month, you would work two consecutive weeks instead of the typical alternating week cadence, creating self-directed schedule control that many physicians value more than traditional paid time off.
Your continuing medical education support includes 10 days and $2,000 annually for attending conferences, completing required credits, and staying current with evolving cardiac critical care evidence and practice. Additionally, 10 professional travel days recognize that meaningful conference participation, committee work, or collaborative research often requires travel time beyond the actual meeting days. This separation of CME days from professional travel days prevents the common academic medicine experience where physicians must choose between adequate conference participation and preserving personal vacation time.
The $2,000 CME allowance covers registration fees for major critical care or cardiac anesthesia conferences but may require supplementation for expensive courses or international meetings. However, the 10 CME days plus 10 professional travel days provide the time infrastructure necessary for genuine professional development rather than token participation in local one-day conferences that minimally impact clinical practice.
Ochsner's retirement benefits address both tax-advantaged savings and employer contribution support. The 401(k) plan allows standard pre-tax contributions up to federal limits, with Ochsner contributing 4% of your salary regardless of your own contributions and then matching an additional 2% of what you personally contribute. This employer contribution structure means you should minimally contribute 2% to capture the full match, generating a 6% total employer contribution to your retirement savings.
Beyond the 401(k), access to both 403(b) and 457(b) plans allows additional tax-advantaged retirement savings for physicians who want to maximize contributions beyond standard 401(k) limits. The 457(b) plan particularly benefits physicians planning earlier retirement or those who may need to access funds before traditional retirement age, since 457(b) withdrawals avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty that applies to 401(k) and 403(b) distributions before age 59½.
For physicians carrying medical school debt, Ochsner's nonprofit status qualifies your employment for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs. After 10 years of qualifying payments while working at a nonprofit organization, remaining federal student loan balances can be forgiven tax-free. Ochsner provides access to a financial team specifically trained to help physicians navigate PSLF requirements, ensure proper loan consolidation, verify qualifying payment plans, and maximize the benefit. For physicians with substantial debt loads, this benefit can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 10-year period.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance protects you and your family from the healthcare costs that can undermine financial planning despite physician-level income. While specific plan details and employee contribution amounts were not discussed in detail, the coverage exists as part of the standard benefits package and represents meaningful value when compared to individual market insurance costs.
Malpractice insurance includes occurrence-based coverage for clinical work, protecting you from claims that arise during your employment even if filed after you leave Ochsner. Tail coverage upon departure remains somewhat unclear from initial discussions, with some ambiguity about whether Ochsner covers tail insurance when physicians leave employment. This is an important clarification to seek during contract negotiations, as tail coverage can cost tens of thousands of dollars and significantly impacts the true cost of changing positions. Many physicians negotiate employer-paid tail coverage as part of their initial contract rather than hoping for favorable policy interpretation when actually separating from employment.
When evaluating this compensation package against other cardiac critical care opportunities, several factors beyond base salary create substantial value. The 38-44 days of time off exceeds what most academic medical centers provide by 10-20 days annually, representing significant quality-of-life value that cannot be easily translated into dollar equivalents. The two-year salary guarantee eliminates productivity pressure during your integration period. The weekend differential compensation and subspecialty pager pay recognize lifestyle sacrifices that many institutions expect without additional compensation.
The retirement benefits, particularly the 4% unconditional employer contribution plus 2% match, combined with PSLF eligibility for physicians with debt, create long-term financial advantages that compound over a career. The professional development support through CME days, professional travel days, and financial allowances exceeds minimum requirements and enables genuine participation in the academic mission rather than token attendance at local conferences.
New Orleans' cost of living, substantially below major academic medical centers in Boston, New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, means your $470,000 effective compensation purchases lifestyle advantages impossible on even significantly higher salaries in expensive coastal markets. Housing costs, property taxes, and everyday expenses allow accumulation of wealth, comfortable family lifestyle, and financial security that equivalent or higher salaries cannot achieve in high-cost markets.
Some aspects of the compensation structure remain less transparent than ideal, with initial descriptions characterized as "a bit opaque" regarding long-term compensation adjustments, bonus calculations, and certain policy interpretations such as tail coverage. This opacity should not deter your interest but does indicate areas requiring detailed discussion during contract negotiations. Specific questions to clarify include: How is ongoing compensation adjusted after the two-year guarantee period? What specific RVU targets or productivity metrics apply to bonus calculations? Does Ochsner cover tail insurance upon voluntary departure, and under what circumstances? How are administrative time commitments translated into RVU target adjustments?
These clarifications prevent future misunderstandings and ensure you make decisions based on complete information rather than assumptions. Ochsner's human resources and physician recruitment teams can provide detailed answers to these questions, and negotiating clear contract language on ambiguous points protects both parties by establishing shared expectations from the outset.
This compensation and benefits package offers what many cardiac critical care physicians seek: competitive financial compensation that recognizes subspecialty expertise, time off sufficient to sustain high-acuity practice without burnout, retirement benefits that build long-term security, and professional development support that enables genuine academic contribution. When combined with New Orleans' favorable cost of living, collaborative practice culture, and the clinical opportunities available in a nationally ranked cardiac program, the total value proposition exceeds what base salary numbers alone might suggest. You will earn compensation that supports comfortable family lifestyle, builds financial security, and allows focus on clinical excellence rather than constant economic anxiety.