11 Highest Paying States for Family Physicians

Here we are again with another Superlative Series, this time with the 11 highest paying states for family physicians!

A family physician is a specialist who practices family medicine. Family medicine is a branch of medicine “devoted to comprehensive health care for people of all ages”, according to Wikipedia. Just to settle the confusion, family physicians in Europe are called general physicians. Because of their role as primary care physicians, family physicians usually practice in outpatient settings. Other countries would not permit you to see other specialists until you are referred by a family physician.

The advent of family medicine as a specialty in the US was seen after World War II. Due to the medical advances after the war, many doctors and medical students felt that the 4 years of medical training and one-year internship was no longer sufficient for the wide scope of knowledge that was needed to practice family medicine. These doctors petitioned the board for a residency training, which was recognized in 1969 in the United States.

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The template for family medicine in most countries mirrors that of the United States, with the major similarity of an outpatient setting. Differences include the number of training years and training. In Canada, family physicians are required to undergo at least 2 years of specialty training after medical school. Once finished, they have the option to undergo a third year of training, this time in palliative care, emergency medicine, and women’s health. In India, medical graduates also undergo 3 years of training, after which they can already practice family medicine. It wasn’t until the 1990s that India has recognized family medicine as a distinct specialty. Today, there is a shortage of family physicians in this country of over a billion people. In the Philippines, family medicine also required 3 years of training under an accredited hospital, with rotations in almost all specialties. Unlike other countries, patients can opt to bypass family physicians when seeking medical care, going directly to medical specialists.

If you are an anesthesiologist or know someone who is, you will want to check out the 11 highest paying states for anesthesiologists!

To compile the list of the 11 highest paying states for family physicians, we searched the internet for available salary data of family physicians per state. Recruiter, Healthcare Salary Online, and Medscape were our main sources. All websites, as expected, had different figures per state. The salary for each state, as provided by our sources, were then added and averaged, with the 11 highest paying states making this list.

Don’t bypass this list and be sure to read the 11 highest paying states for family physicians!