The compensation structure at Southern Medical Group reflects the hybrid nature of the practice model: you receive the security of a hospital-backed salary guarantee during your ramp-up period, the income upside of productivity-based compensation once you exceed threshold, and the long-term wealth-building opportunities that come with partnership, co-management participation, and equity in a cardiovascular ASC. This is not a position where you trade autonomy for a paycheck. It is a position where your financial trajectory is directly tied to your clinical productivity, your commitment to quality, and your willingness to invest in the program's growth.
The $625,000 base salary guarantee positions this opportunity above the MGMA median for vascular surgery nationally ($599,922) and in the Southern region ($636,284). You are employed by Southern Medical Group with salary support funded by Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare through the Professional Services Agreement. This structure gives you the stability of a guaranteed income floor while preserving the autonomy of private practice employment.
The monthly reconciliation model is a meaningful advantage over annual productivity calculations. If you have a strong month and generate wRVUs above your threshold, that additional compensation flows to you within weeks, not at year-end. This creates a direct, visible connection between your clinical effort and your income.
Beyond base salary and productivity bonuses, multiple income streams contribute to total compensation:
These additional income streams are available to associates from day one. They are not reserved for partners, and they represent meaningful additions to total compensation that are often overlooked when evaluating base salary alone.
Partnership is attainable after 12 consecutive months of full-time employment with a buy-in of $30,000. The buy-in is modest by private practice standards and unlocks significant financial benefits:
The co-management agreement deserves particular attention. It is structured around quality improvement initiatives with specific, measurable metrics. Physicians perform hourly work on identified issues and receive hourly compensation, and there is a separate year-end distribution tied to metric achievement. Each metric has an assigned dollar value, and the annual payout reflects collective performance against those targets. This structure aligns physician incentives with hospital quality goals while providing meaningful additional income.
The cardiovascular-only ASC opening in spring 2026 represents a genuine wealth-building opportunity that distinguishes this position from typical employed or even private practice roles. The ASC is a joint venture between SMG and TMH (51% hospital / 49% physician ownership). Partner physicians will have the opportunity to invest in both the real estate and the operational entity, creating two distinct income streams: rental income from the property and profit distributions from procedural volume.
For vascular surgery specifically, the ASC will include procedural capacity for appropriate outpatient vascular cases, expanding your ability to perform cases in a more efficient, physician-directed environment. The facility is designed with operational efficiency as a priority, avoiding the scheduling delays and late start times that plague many hospital-based procedural environments.
This is not a speculative investment. Cardiovascular ASCs with strong procedural volume and physician alignment have demonstrated consistent profitability, and the combination of real estate appreciation and operational distributions creates compounding wealth over time.
The benefits package provides comprehensive coverage with minimal out-of-pocket burden:
When evaluating this opportunity, consider the full picture:
| Component | Estimated Annual Value |
|---|---|
| Base Salary (Guarantee) | $625,000 |
| Productivity Bonus (above threshold) | Variable |
| Teaching Income | $5,000 - $10,000 |
| Meeting Participation | $10,000 - $30,000 |
| Associate Total (Year 1-2) | $640,000 - $700,000+ |
| Co-Management (Partner) | $40,000 - $65,000 |
| ASC Distributions (Partner) | Variable (TBD) |
| Partner Total | $725,000+ |
[End of table]
These figures do not include the tax advantages of 1099 income streams, which allow for additional pre-tax retirement contributions beyond the 401(k) limits. For a surgeon focused on long-term wealth accumulation, the ability to fund both a 401(k) and a SEP-IRA creates meaningful tax-deferred savings capacity.
For context, MGMA median total compensation for vascular surgery is:
The $625,000 guarantee alone exceeds the national and Southern medians. When additional income streams and partner benefits are included, total compensation positions solidly above the 75th percentile for the specialty.
This is a compensation structure designed to reward productivity, quality, and long-term commitment. The guarantee provides security during your transition. The productivity model ensures you benefit directly from your clinical effort. And the partnership track, co-management agreement, and ASC equity create wealth-building opportunities that extend far beyond annual W-2 income.