Top doctors at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Temple University and University of Pennsylvania Schools of Medicine also earn well above their peers at other medical schools in the Northeast, except perhaps for those in New York and Boston. That's three times the mean amount that medical school professors of the same rank and specialty in the Northeast earned, according to a 1996 survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges. They occupy the upper end of the pay spectrum in any setting, including private practice, where they could earn even more. They operate on hearts, brains, hips and knees, parts of the body essential to survival and mobility. Private and government health-insurance systems recognize the relative value of their services by reimbursing them more favorably than general practitioners.
Efficient surgeons can perform multiple procedures daily.
The free market, argue the doctors and officials in academic medicine, remains the best way to attract and retain the best and brightest. They also fill beds in the centers' affiliated hospitals with their patients. Even some of the better-compensated specialists frown on this star system. It's the bitter battle for market share among the four academic centers that has driven up the top doctors' salaries. The physicians, much like baseball free agents, say they will take their talents elsewhere if their financial terms aren't met.