For Clinic & Pharmacy Owners
Adding a doctor or staff — which pay model makes sense?
Every model below is used somewhere in this field. Set your numbers once, and see what each structure would actually cost the clinic and pay the hire — side by side, in one ledger.
Shared Assumptions
Six Models, Compared at Your Numbers
Fixed Salary
Clinic carries all the volume risk. Hire knows their pay before the month starts.
Pure Revenue Share
Hire carries all the volume risk. No patients, no pay — but no cap either.
Minimum Guarantee + Recovery
Hire is guaranteed a floor every month. Shortfalls are carried forward and recovered from future surplus — see the ledger below.
Fixed + Incentive Above Threshold
Clinic's risk is capped at the base. Upside beyond a target is shared with the hire.
Per-Consultation Fee
Pay tracks footfall, not ticket size — common for visiting or associate consultants.
Retainer + Case Fee
A light guaranteed base with most of the pay tied to caseload — a common middle ground for new associates.
The MG Recovery Ledger, Over a Ramp-Up
| Month | Patients | Revenue | Share Earned | Balance Owed to Clinic (Start) | Cash Paid to Hire | Balance Owed to Clinic (End) |
|---|
Uses the guarantee and share % set in the "Minimum Guarantee + Recovery" card above. Edit the patient counts to model your own ramp-up. When earned share exceeds the guarantee, the clinic first recovers what it advanced in earlier lean months before paying anything extra.
"Clinic's net contribution" is revenue minus overhead minus the hire's pay — what's left before your own draw or profit. It's the same formula in every model; only the pay changes.
A fixed salary is a hedge for the hire and a risk for you at low volume, but caps your cost as they grow. A revenue-share model does the opposite — cheap at low volume, uncapped as they succeed.
MG + Recovery is common in diagnostics and multi-doctor clinics precisely because it smooths a new hire's ramp-up without the clinic paying for guarantees it never earns back.
Per-consultation fee and retainer + case fee both insulate the clinic from swings in per-patient ticket size — useful if your dispensing revenue varies a lot patient to patient.
None of this accounts for statutory costs (PF, ESI, professional tax) or notice-period and retention differences between an employee and a consultant arrangement — factor those in separately before signing anything.