Free ophthalmologist job description templates across six subspecialties, with a credentialing checklist and small-practice guidance. Download as DOCX.
6 free templates covering comprehensive, retina, glaucoma, cornea, and pediatric ophthalmology, plus a small-practice version, with the credentialing checklist the template farms skip. Download as DOCX.
An ophthalmologist job description has to do two things the generic templates skip. First, it has to disambiguate the role: an ophthalmologist is a physician, an MD or DO who can perform eye surgery, which is different from an optometrist or an optician, and within ophthalmology there are subspecialties, retina, glaucoma, cornea, pediatric, that are genuinely different hires. Second, the role is governed by credentialing: a state license, board certification, DEA registration, NPI, payer enrollment, and facility privileges all have to be in place before the physician can see a patient or the practice can bill. Name the role and the subspecialty, plan the credentialing, and the posting describes a real hire.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the practices that make these hires, including the small, owner-led practices that run hiring without a dedicated HR department. The six below cover the comprehensive role and the most common subspecialties, with a credentialing checklist built in. The guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
TL;DR
Ophthalmologist is a physician (MD/DO), distinct from an optometrist (OD) and an optician. Within it are subspecialties, comprehensive, retina, glaucoma, cornea, and pediatric, that are different hires. The role is governed by credentialing: state license, ABO board status, DEA, NPI, CAQH, malpractice, privileges, and payer enrollment, which gate the start date. Physicians are FLSA exempt. The BLS reports ophthalmologists at a mean wage of about $301,500 (May 2024). Download as DOCX.
What an Ophthalmologist Does
An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who diagnoses and treats diseases of the eye and provides both medical and surgical care. The work spans clinical care, surgical and procedural work, supervision of the clinical team, and records and compliance, with the specific focus depending on the subspecialty.
The federal data tracks the role under physicians and surgeons, with a dedicated detailed category for ophthalmologists. What changes by subspecialty is the clinical focus: general eye care for a comprehensive ophthalmologist, the retina for a retina specialist, optic-nerve disease for a glaucoma specialist, and so on.
Ophthalmologist vs Optometrist vs Optician
The single most useful thing this job description can do is use the right title, because ophthalmologist, optometrist, and optician are different professions, and within ophthalmology the subspecialty matters too.
Ophthalmologist (MD/DO)
Physician and surgeon
A medical doctor who completed medical school, residency, and board certification, and who can perform eye surgery, prescribe medication, and provide the full range of medical eye care. This is the role these templates cover.
Optometrist (OD)
Not a physician
A Doctor of Optometry who provides vision care, exams, and corrective lenses and manages many eye conditions, but is not a medical doctor and has a different scope, license, and training path.
Optician
Eyewear specialist
A trained technician who fits and dispenses glasses and contact lenses based on prescriptions. Opticians do not examine eyes or diagnose disease, and the role usually needs a high-school diploma plus training.
Ophthalmic Technician
Clinical support
A support-staff role that assists the physician with testing, imaging, and patient workup. This is a high-volume, growing role and a far more frequent hire for a practice than the physician.
Use the Right Title
An ophthalmologist is a physician (MD/DO) who performs surgery. An optometrist (OD) provides vision care and exams but is not a physician. An optician fits and dispenses eyewear. An ophthalmic technician is clinical support staff and a far more frequent hire. Asking for the wrong one reaches the wrong candidate pool entirely.
Ophthalmologist Duties and Responsibilities
An ophthalmologist's duties cluster into clinical care, surgical and procedural work, team supervision, and records and compliance. The clinical method shifts by subspecialty, but these areas hold across the role.
Clinical care
Examine, diagnose, and treat eye disease
Prescribe medication and treatment
Manage a patient panel
Surgical and procedural
Perform cataract and ophthalmic surgery
Perform laser and in-office procedures
Manage perioperative care
Team and supervision
Supervise technicians and scribes
Work with optometrists and front office
Coordinate referrals and follow-up
Records and compliance
Maintain accurate EHR records
Follow HIPAA and OSHA standards
Support quality and safety
A comprehensive ophthalmologist covers general medical and surgical care, while a retina or glaucoma specialist leans into a narrower, procedure-heavy panel. For a structured way to scope the role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by subspecialty, and use the small-practice version if you are an independent, owner-led practice. The medical and surgical eye-care core runs through all six, but the fellowship, the procedures, and the daily focus differ enough that the matched version reads credibly. Use this guide to choose.
Comprehensive Ophthalmologist
General eye care
The broad medical and surgical role, including cataract surgery and a general patient panel. The right starting point for most practices hiring a generalist.
Private Practice (Small)
Owner-led, no HR dept
Written for an independent, physician-owned practice running the hire without a dedicated HR function, with a partnership-track angle and team-based framing.
Retina Specialist
Vitreoretinal
For medical and surgical retina care, one of the most-recruited subspecialties, with a vitreoretinal fellowship and complex case management.
Glaucoma Specialist
Optic-nerve disease
For medical, laser, and surgical glaucoma care, with a glaucoma fellowship and a focus on managing intraocular pressure and visual fields.
Cornea and Refractive
LASIK and transplants
For corneal and anterior-segment disease, corneal transplants, and refractive surgery such as LASIK, with a cornea and refractive fellowship.
Pediatric Ophthalmologist
Children's eye care
For eye conditions in children, including strabismus and amblyopia, with a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship and family-centered care.
Match the Template to the Hire
General eye care: Comprehensive. Independent owner-led practice: Private Practice. Retina and vitreous: Retina Specialist. Optic-nerve disease: Glaucoma Specialist. Corneal transplants and LASIK: Cornea and Refractive. Children: Pediatric. Whichever you pick, name the correct fellowship and plan the credentialing timeline.
6 Free Ophthalmologist Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: practice overview, position summary, key responsibilities, qualifications and credentials, credentialing notes, and how to apply. Fill in the brackets, set the practice and reporting line, and post.
Download All 6 Job Description Templates
Comprehensive, small private practice, retina, glaucoma, cornea, and pediatric. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: Comprehensive Ophthalmologist
The broad medical and surgical role, including cataract surgery and a general patient panel. The right starting point for most practices hiring a generalist.
Comprehensive Ophthalmologist Job Description
COMPREHENSIVE OPHTHALMOLOGIST JOB DESCRIPTION
Practice/Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Medical Director / Managing Partner / Practice Owner]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2 [or per contract]
FLSA status: Exempt (learned professional; physicians are exempt)
Compensation: $______ per year [+ benefits, incentive, call pay]
ABOUT [PRACTICE NAME]
[Practice Name] is a [solo / group / multispecialty eye-care] practice in
[City, State]. We are hiring a Comprehensive Ophthalmologist to provide
medical and surgical eye care across a broad patient population.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Comprehensive Ophthalmologist diagnoses and treats disorders and
diseases of the eye, performs medical and surgical care including cataract
surgery, and manages a general ophthalmology patient panel. You will work
with optometrists, technicians, and support staff across the practice.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Examine, diagnose, and treat eye conditions
•Perform cataract and other ophthalmic surgery
•Prescribe medication and corrective treatment
•Manage a general ophthalmology patient panel
•Interpret diagnostic imaging and testing
•Supervise technicians and clinical support staff
•Maintain accurate records in the EHR
•Follow HIPAA, OSHA, and quality standards
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND CREDENTIALS
•MD or DO degree
•Completed ophthalmology residency (36+ months)
•Board certified or board eligible (ABO; AOBOO-HNS for DOs)
•Active, unrestricted state medical license
•DEA registration (and state CSR/CDS where required)
•NPI; CAQH profile
•Hospital or ASC privileges (where applicable)
•Malpractice coverage (commonly $1M/$3M)
CREDENTIALING AND COMPLIANCE NOTES (read before posting)
This role requires verified credentials before the start date: state
medical license, ABO board status, DEA registration, NPI, malpractice
coverage, payer enrollment, and hospital or ASC privileges. Build
credentialing time into the hiring timeline. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Practice Name] is an equal opportunity employer. Reasonable accommodations
are available for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $______ per year [+ benefits]
To apply, email __ with your CV and references.
Template 2: Private Practice Ophthalmologist (Small Practice)
Written for an independent, physician-owned practice running the hire without a dedicated HR department, with a partnership-track angle and team-based framing.
Private Practice Ophthalmologist Job Description (Small Practice)
This is the part the template farms skip entirely, and for an ophthalmologist it is the part that actually governs the hire, because credentialing and payer enrollment determine when the physician can see patients and when the practice can bill. Four areas shape the timeline.
State license and board status
The physician must hold an active, unrestricted state medical license, which is also a prerequisite for DEA registration, and the posting should state whether you require board certification or accept board-eligible candidates. Board certification runs through the American Board of Ophthalmology, or AOBOO-HNS for osteopathic physicians, and postings routinely ask for BC or BE. Verify the license and board status before the start date, and note that license renewal and continuing-education requirements vary by state.
DEA registration and NPI
An ophthalmologist who prescribes controlled substances needs a current DEA registration, which costs a set fee per three-year cycle, requires the state license first, and is separate for each state of practice, and many states add their own controlled-substance registration on top. Every billing physician also needs a National Provider Identifier. Confirm both are active and tied to your practice location, since a missing or mismatched registration delays the start.
Payer enrollment and CAQH
Before the physician can bill, they must be enrolled with payers, including Medicare and the commercial plans you work with, and most credentialing runs through a CAQH profile. Payer enrollment is often the longest single step, commonly taking months, so start it early and track it as its own workstream. For hospital or surgery-center work, primary-source credentialing is handled by a specialty platform, not general HR software.
Privileges, malpractice, and HIPAA
If the role involves hospital or ambulatory-surgery-center care, the physician needs privileges at each facility, a separate application and review, and surgical privileging can add time. The physician also needs malpractice coverage, commonly written at one million per claim and three million aggregate. Finally, every member of the practice, physician and support staff alike, needs HIPAA training at onboarding, which a small practice can run as a standard step.
The National Provider Identifier is issued through the CMS NPPES registry, controlled-substance prescribing requires registration through the DEA Diversion Control program, and a practice handling protected health information is a HIPAA covered entity under the HHS HIPAA rules. Plan these alongside the posting, not after it.
Credentialing Gates the Start Date
A state license, ABO board status, DEA registration, NPI, CAQH profile, malpractice coverage, facility privileges, and payer enrollment (including Medicare) all have to be in place before the physician sees patients and the practice bills. Payer enrollment is often the longest step. Primary-source verification is handled by a specialty credentialing tool, not general HR software. This is general information, not legal advice.
Requirements and Qualifications
This is a highly credentialed role where training and verified credentials are non-negotiable. Name the subspecialty training and the specific credentials your practice requires, and plan to verify each before the start date.
Requirement
What to know
Degree
MD or DO
Training
Ophthalmology residency (36+ months) plus any fellowship
Board
ABO board certified or board eligible (AOBOO-HNS for DOs)
Licensure
Active, unrestricted state medical license
Credentials
DEA, state CSR/CDS, NPI, CAQH, malpractice, privileges
Enrollment
Payer enrollment including Medicare
Set the training and credentials to the subspecialty, and treat verification as part of the hire. The O*NET profile for ophthalmologists lists common tasks, and the SHRM guide covers the standard sections of a job description.
How to Write an Ophthalmologist Job Description
A strong ophthalmologist posting takes shape once you settle the role, the subspecialty, and the credentialing timeline. Here is the process the templates are built around.
1
Confirm the role and subspecialty
Make sure you need an ophthalmologist (physician), not an optometrist, then name the subspecialty: comprehensive, retina, glaucoma, cornea, or pediatric.
2
List the real responsibilities
Clinical care, surgical and procedural work, team supervision, and records and compliance, calibrated to the subspecialty.
3
Spell out training and credentials
Ophthalmology residency plus any fellowship, state license, ABO board status, DEA, NPI, CAQH, malpractice, and privileges.
4
Classify and set pay
Physicians are FLSA exempt. Benchmark compensation to physician survey data and describe the base, incentive, call, and any partnership path.
5
Plan the credentialing timeline
Credentialing and payer enrollment, including Medicare, determine the real start date. Use a specialty credentialing tool and run it as its own workstream.
Keep the posting neutral and inclusive, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics.
Ophthalmologist Pay and Outlook
Ophthalmologist pay is high and varies by subspecialty, region, and productivity, and unlike many physician specialties, the BLS does track ophthalmologists as their own category.
Pay and Demand (BLS)
The BLS reports ophthalmologists, except pediatric, at a mean annual wage of about $301,500 in May 2024, with the median top-coded at or above $239,200. Employment was about 12,500, with the category projected to grow 4% from 2024 to 2034 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
For setting pay in a posting, the mean is a useful anchor, but compensation varies widely. Procedural and surgical subspecialties such as retina and cornea, and certain markets, sit at the higher end, and total pay depends on how it splits between base salary, productivity or incentive pay, and call coverage, plus any partnership path in a private practice. Because the workforce is growing only modestly while demand for eye care rises with an aging population, compensation is competitive. For a posting, benchmark to subspecialty-specific and regional survey data rather than a single national figure, describe the pay structure clearly, and include a good-faith range where required. National compensation surveys are the right reference for subspecialty detail.
Hiring an Ophthalmologist
A hospital or large eye-care group hires ophthalmologists through an HR department, physician recruiters, and a credentialing office. A smaller independent practice makes the same hire directly, where an owner or practice administrator runs the search and the credentialing, usually without a dedicated HR function. Here is what actually matters.
The practice is the small business, even though the physician is a specialist hire
An independent ophthalmology practice is a small business by any reasonable measure: the average practice has only a handful of physicians, but once you count technicians, scribes, opticians, front desk, and billing, total staff commonly runs from fifteen to fifty or more. That practice is physician-owned and usually has no dedicated HR department, so the owner or a practice administrator runs hiring and onboarding directly. The physician hire is the rare, expensive, high-stakes event, and it is typically routed through physician-specific recruiters and specialty job boards rather than a general posting. But the same practice hires support staff far more often, and those hires, the technician, the scribe, the front desk coordinator, the biller, are exactly the routine, repeatable onboarding a small practice handles itself. Write the ophthalmologist posting for your specific setting, name the subspecialty, and be realistic that the candidate pool is small and competitive, while recognizing that the practice has a whole eye-care team to bring on around this hire.
Ophthalmologist is not optometrist, and the subspecialty matters
The first thing a clean posting does is disambiguate the role. An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor, an MD or DO who completed medical school, an ophthalmology residency, and board certification, and who can perform surgery and provide the full range of medical eye care. That is different from an optometrist, who holds a Doctor of Optometry degree and provides vision care and exams but is not a physician, and different again from an optician, who fits and dispenses eyewear. Mixing these up in a posting attracts the wrong candidates. Beyond that top-level distinction, ophthalmologist itself is an umbrella over subspecialties: comprehensive or general, retina or vitreoretinal, glaucoma, cornea and refractive, pediatric, oculoplastics, and neuro-ophthalmology, with retina and pediatric among the most-recruited. Each subspecialty adds a fellowship and a different daily focus, so name the one you need. This page includes a template for the comprehensive role plus the most common subspecialties, so you can start from the right base.
Credentialing and payer enrollment drive the timeline, and HR software does not do them
The practical difference between hiring an ophthalmologist and hiring most roles is credentialing, and it has to be planned from day one because it determines when the physician can see patients and bill. The physician needs an active state medical license, ABO board certification or board-eligible status, a DEA registration to prescribe controlled substances, a National Provider Identifier, a current CAQH profile, malpractice coverage, and, where the role involves facility care or surgery, hospital or ambulatory-surgery-center privileges. Before the practice can be paid, the physician must also be enrolled with payers, including Medicare, and that enrollment is often the longest step, commonly running for months. Be clear-eyed about the tooling: primary-source credentialing and license verification are handled by specialty medical-credentialing platforms, not by general HR software, so a small practice pairs a credentialing tool for the physician with a general onboarding tool for the rest of the team. Build credentialing and payer enrollment into the hiring timeline as their own workstream, and store every verified document centrally. This is general information, not legal advice.
After You Hire: Onboarding
The job description is step one, and for an ophthalmologist the onboarding has to treat credentialing and payer enrollment as the critical path, because those steps, not the paperwork, decide when the physician can see patients and when the practice gets paid. Have the offer or employment agreement signed with the compensation structure, exempt status, and any partnership terms, complete Form I-9 within the first days along with the rest of the new hire paperwork, and gather tax forms.
In parallel, run the credentialing workstream, ideally started before the start date: verify the state license and ABO board status, confirm the DEA registration and NPI, complete the CAQH profile, confirm malpractice coverage, apply for hospital or ASC privileges where needed, and begin payer enrollment including Medicare, which is usually the longest step. Use a specialty credentialing platform for primary-source verification, since general HR software does not do that. Store the verified credentials and the signed onboarding documents centrally and track each to completion, the kind of structured start the employee onboarding guide describes, since a single missing item can delay the first patient.
Because a smaller practice rarely has a dedicated HR function, a documented, repeatable process saves real time, and the same process onboards the technicians, scribes, front desk, and billing staff you hire around the physician, who are in fact the practice's most frequent hires. FirstHR fits that team onboarding directly: e-signature for offers and agreements, document management to store licenses, board certificates, DEA, NPI, and malpractice records, HIPAA training modules, task workflows so each onboarding step is tracked, and a simple HRIS with an org chart as the practice grows. Because pricing is flat rather than per seat, a small practice pays one rate as it scales. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, and it does not perform primary-source credentialing verification, so pair it with a payroll provider and a specialty credentialing tool for the physician. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
An ophthalmologist is a physician (MD/DO) who performs surgery, distinct from an optometrist (OD) and an optician; use the right title in the posting.
Ophthalmologist is an umbrella over subspecialties (comprehensive, retina, glaucoma, cornea, pediatric); name the one you need before writing.
Credentialing governs the hire: state license, ABO board status, DEA, NPI, CAQH, malpractice, and facility privileges must be verified before the start date.
Payer enrollment, including Medicare, is often the longest step and gates billing; primary-source verification is handled by a specialty tool, not general HR software.
Physicians are FLSA exempt under the learned professional exemption, and the salary-basis test does not apply to them.
The BLS tracks ophthalmologists separately (mean wage about $301,500, May 2024); benchmark pay to subspecialty and regional survey data.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an ophthalmologist do?
An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who diagnoses and treats disorders and diseases of the eye, providing both medical and surgical care. The duties cluster into a few areas: clinical care, including examining, diagnosing, and treating eye disease, prescribing medication, and managing a patient panel; surgical and procedural work, including cataract surgery, laser treatment, and other ophthalmic procedures; team and supervision, including overseeing technicians and scribes and working with optometrists and front office; and records and compliance, including maintaining accurate EHR records and following HIPAA and OSHA standards. The specific clinical focus depends on the subspecialty. A comprehensive ophthalmologist handles general medical and surgical eye care, a retina specialist treats the retina and vitreous, a glaucoma specialist manages optic-nerve disease and intraocular pressure, a cornea and refractive surgeon performs corneal transplants and LASIK, and a pediatric ophthalmologist treats children. Because the role spans subspecialties, a good job description names the specific type. This page offers a template for the comprehensive role plus the most common subspecialties.
What is the difference between an ophthalmologist and an optometrist?
This is the single most important distinction to get right in a posting, because they are different professions with different scope, training, and licensure. An ophthalmologist is a physician, an MD or DO, who completed medical school, an ophthalmology residency, and board certification, and who can perform eye surgery, prescribe the full range of medication, and provide medical and surgical eye care. An optometrist holds a Doctor of Optometry degree, provides vision care, eye exams, and corrective lenses, and manages many eye conditions, but is not a medical doctor, has a different license, and generally does not perform surgery. There is also the optician, a trained technician who fits and dispenses glasses and contact lenses based on prescriptions but does not examine eyes or diagnose disease. If you are writing a posting, use the right title for the role you actually need, because asking for an ophthalmologist when you want an optometrist, or the reverse, reaches an entirely different candidate pool with different pay expectations and a different scope of practice. The templates on this page are for the ophthalmologist, the physician role.
What credentials does an ophthalmologist need?
An ophthalmologist needs an MD or DO degree, completed residency, and a full set of active credentials that must be verified before the start date. The training path is an undergraduate degree, four years of medical school, a one-year internship, and a three-year ophthalmology residency, with an optional one-to-two-year fellowship for a subspecialty. On the credentialing side, the physician needs an active, unrestricted state medical license; board certification or board-eligible status with the American Board of Ophthalmology, or AOBOO-HNS for osteopathic physicians; a DEA registration to prescribe controlled substances, which requires the state license first and is separate per state, often alongside a state controlled-substance registration; a National Provider Identifier; a current CAQH profile; malpractice coverage, commonly written at one million per claim and three million aggregate; and, where the role involves facility care or surgery, hospital or ambulatory-surgery-center privileges. Before the practice can bill, the physician must also be enrolled with payers, including Medicare. These steps determine when the physician can legally see patients and when the practice gets paid, and payer enrollment in particular often takes months. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is an ophthalmologist exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
An ophthalmologist is exempt from overtime. Physicians are classified as exempt under the FLSA learned professional exemption, which applies to work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning acquired through prolonged specialized instruction, exactly the extended medical education an ophthalmologist completes, and physician compensation is far above the salary threshold. Licensed physicians are also treated specially under the rules: the salary-basis test that applies to most exempt employees does not apply to physicians, so an ophthalmologist is exempt based on the professional nature of the work regardless of how pay is structured. As a practical matter, you do not owe overtime to an ophthalmologist, and the questions that consume the hire are credentialing and compensation structure, base salary, productivity or incentive pay, call coverage, and any partnership path, rather than classification. Even though classification is straightforward, the offer and employment agreement should still state the exempt status and document the full compensation arrangement. One related point: physician non-competes are governed by state law and are in flux, so treat any non-compete as state-specific and have counsel review it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do small practices hire ophthalmologists, and is FirstHR a fit?
Yes, small independent practices do hire ophthalmologists, and they are exactly the kind of small business, physician-owned and usually without a dedicated HR department, that has to run hiring and onboarding itself. There are roughly seven thousand private ophthalmology practices in the United States, the majority physician-owned and below fifty employees, though private-equity consolidation is slowly shrinking that independent segment. The nuance is that the physician hire itself is rare and high-stakes and is typically routed through physician-specific recruiters and specialty job boards, and physician credentialing and license verification are handled by specialty medical-credentialing platforms, not by general HR software, which FirstHR is transparent about. Where a tool like FirstHR fits cleanly is the rest of the eye-care team: the practice hires technicians, scribes, front desk staff, and billers far more often than physicians, and those routine, repeatable hires are exactly what a flat-rate onboarding tool handles well, including I-9 and tax forms, HIPAA-awareness training, e-signature, document storage, and task workflows. So for the physician, pair a credentialing tool with your recruiter; for the whole practice team, a general onboarding tool is a genuine fit. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, and applicant tracking is coming soon.
How do I write an ophthalmologist job description?
Start by getting the role right: confirm you need an ophthalmologist, the physician, rather than an optometrist or optician, then name the subspecialty, since comprehensive, retina, glaucoma, cornea and refractive, and pediatric are different hires with different fellowships. Pick the matching template. Write an honest position summary and list the real responsibilities across clinical care, surgical and procedural work, team supervision, and records and compliance, calibrated to the subspecialty. Spell out the training, an ophthalmology residency plus any required fellowship, and the credentials: state medical license, ABO board certification or board-eligible status, DEA registration, NPI, CAQH, malpractice coverage, and hospital or ASC privileges where relevant. State the reporting line and practice setting, since a small owner-led practice and a large group read very differently to candidates, and consider a partnership path if you offer one. Classify the role as exempt, which physicians are. Set compensation from physician survey data and describe the structure, base, incentive, and call, with a good-faith range where your state requires it, and add an equal-opportunity statement. Crucially, plan the credentialing and payer-enrollment timeline alongside the posting. The free templates on this page give you a starting structure for each subspecialty with the credentialing notes built in.
How much does an ophthalmologist make?
Ophthalmologist pay is high and varies by subspecialty, region, productivity, and practice type. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does track ophthalmologists separately under the category ophthalmologists, except pediatric, and reported a mean annual wage of about $301,500 in May 2024, with the median top-coded at or above $239,200 because the BLS caps reporting for high-wage physician occupations. Employment in that category was about 12,500. For setting pay in a posting, the mean is a useful anchor, but compensation varies widely: procedural and surgical subspecialties such as retina and cornea, and certain markets, sit at the higher end, and total pay also depends on how it is split between base salary, productivity or incentive pay, and call coverage, plus any partnership path in a private practice. Because the workforce is growing only modestly while demand for eye care rises with an aging population, ophthalmologist compensation is competitive. For a posting, benchmark to subspecialty-specific and regional survey data rather than a single national figure, describe the pay structure clearly, and include a good-faith range where your state requires pay transparency. National compensation surveys are the right reference for subspecialty detail.
What happens after I hire an ophthalmologist?
Run an onboarding that treats credentialing and payer enrollment as the critical path, because for a physician those steps, not the paperwork, determine when the new hire can see patients and when the practice gets paid. Start the employment basics: have the offer or employment agreement signed with the compensation structure, the exempt status, and any partnership terms, complete Form I-9 in the first days, and gather tax forms. In parallel, and ideally started before the start date, run the credentialing workstream: verify the state medical license and ABO board status, confirm the DEA registration and NPI are active and tied to your location, complete the CAQH profile, confirm malpractice coverage, and apply for hospital or ASC privileges where the role requires them. Begin payer enrollment early, including Medicare, since it is usually the longest step and gates billing. Use a specialty credentialing platform for primary-source verification, since general HR software does not do that. Store all verified credentials, the signed agreement, and the enrollment confirmations centrally and track each to completion, because a single missing item can delay the first patient. Then orient the physician to the practice, the team, the EHR, and clinical workflows. Because a smaller practice rarely has a dedicated HR function, a documented, repeatable process saves real time, and the same process onboards the technicians, scribes, and front desk staff you hire around this role. FirstHR fits that team onboarding directly with e-signature, document management, HIPAA training modules, and task workflows, though it does not run payroll, administer benefits, or perform credentialing verification.
