I worked in the northeast for a national home infusion co from late 90's to mid 00's. My last few yrs were pretty good. Commission was paid monthly and I averaged ~$5K/month. Base was just under $60K when I left. No car or allowance, just $0.40+/mi. The rate varied over the years.
My last year however, the company ownership & senior management changed and I went from making ~$5K/month to $3K for the 1st quarter of that year. We all knew it couldn't last forever, but boy did that sting. Company lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of the salesforce in the first 6 months of that year.
We were paid based on total revenue for one's territory. I focused on hi dollar, long term tx's like IVIG (lifetime tx) and subsequently made a killing. Once they went to paying on profit margin (better for the company of course, bad for reps), I got killed. Oh well, fun while it lasted. I learned an awful lot about hospital sales, selling to different specialties (Neuro, Hem-Onc, GI, Cardio, Pulm) reimbursement, injectibles, specialty pharma, etc. It was easy to pick a specialty in which to work after selling to so many different specialties and I had relationships with plenty of opinion/thought leaders.
I left to take a hospital acct mgr position and while my income improved compared to the last year in homecare, it took 2 yrs to equal my last good year in homecare!
I can't ever see going back to homecare/home infusion but at least we didn't have to deal with these awful PHRMA guidelines. Come on...I can't take a MD to dinner or golfing? WTF?
