With both the least competition and the highest mean annual pay (after adjustment for cost of living), Mississippi has emerged as the best place to practice medicine in the U.S., according to an analysis by WalletHub.
On the flip side, the D.C.-based personal-finance website found its local area sitting in dead last place.
WalletHub crunched the numbers on 11 metrics, weighing each to calculate its relative value alongside the others.
The analysts divided the measures between medical quality on one hand and, on the other, opportunity and competition.
For medical quality, there were three metrics—punitive state medical boards, malpractice award payouts per capita and malpractice liability insurance rate.
For opportunity and competition, the eight measures included, along with the two already mentioned, things like number of hospitals per 100,000 residents, insured population rate, medically underserved areas or populations and future elderly population.
Mississippi may seem an unlikely preferred place to practice medicine, given its low standing in various socioeconomic and quality-of-life indices, but its showing may highlight the flexibility of the medical profession as U.S. healthcare changes in sweeping ways.
“We are at the infancy of a pay-for-performance model, but, so far, the results have been mixed at best,” says Mark Dame, EdD, of Texas Tech University in one of several expert interviews accompanying the WalletHub report. “Many are working longer hours just to keep even with last year’s income.”
To see the full results and find out how hospitable your home area is to docs, click here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.