HCPro.com: Physician Compensation & Recruitment

February 2008 (Volume 9, Issue 2)	view entire issue

Private practices catch up to hospital-owned starting salaries
Compensation trends that have for a long time distinguished between hospital- and physician-owned practices may now be changing as physician recruitment becomes more competitive across settings. For years, physician compensation distribution across ownership settings has followed a similar pattern: Hospital-owned physician practices-as well as those owned by an integrated delivery system (IDS)-generally offered higher starting compensation levels than private physician-owned facilities, but taken over time, compensation levels in private practices were significantly higher.

General surgery comp lags behind that of subspecialists
Compensation data for general surgery paint two pictures, depending on which general surgeons you're considering. For traditional general surgeons, compensation is increasing modestly, but at $306,115 per year, according to the 2007 MGMA Physician Compensation and Production Survey, it is one of the lowest levels of any surgical specialty. General surgery subspecialists (e.g., general surgeons who have fellowshipped in hand, pediatric, vascular, trauma surgery, etc.), on the other hand, earn significantly more and are seeing bigger year-to-year increases.

Pay physicians for call with nonqualified deferred compensation
When medical staff physicians at Winchester (VA) Medical Center grew unhappy with call volume and began asking to be paid for call coverage roughly three years ago, administrators researched how other hospitals were handling the issue and came away unsatisfied with the typical solution. As hospitals and physicians increasingly butt heads over pay for call, many hospitals attempt to solve the problem by paying some sort of stipend or per diem rate to the specialists with the highest call burden.

Offer compensation to encourage medical staff leadership
In recent years, finding medical staff members to assume leadership positions has become an increasingly daunting task. The mounting pressure on physicians' time and the increasing burden of leadership work has dissuaded many excellent doctors from stepping forward into these roles. In addition, many physicians dislike organizational politics, detest meetings, and are averse to any activity that takes them away from the office, off the hospital floors, or out of the OR.

Other recently-published articles from Physician Compensation & Recruitment:

In debt, heavily recruited, and aware of their value, residents are making their career decisions earlier

High demand, increased procedures drive compensation

Hospitals turn to employment model as on-call solution

Low compensation continues to create challenges

On-call pay trends begin to stabilize, survey finds

Recruiters seek efficiency in ailing economy, tight market

Low comp creates geriatrician shortage as population ages

Primary care reports bigger compensation increases than normal as specialists struggle to keep pace with inflation

IPPS, fee schedule contain new Stark changes

’Float pool’ offers alternative to locum tenens

Choose the right on-call comp model for your hospital

IMG physicians can ease looming shortage

Growing demand and steady profits keep orthopedic surgery compensation high

Sharing recruits helps rural hospitals find specialists

Female physicians more satisfied despite earning less

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