Executive Leadership Newsletters

Health Governance Report Healthcare Leadership Review Medicine on the Net Physician Compensation & Recruitment

This 12-page monthly business newsletter focuses on the specifics of actual physician pay plans used by medical group practices.

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Physician Compensation & Recruitment

Issue 12, December 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Expect additional Stark changes in 2008

  Those hoping the release of the final 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule would clear up lingering...

• Compensation experts offer predictions for 2008

  Editor's note: We asked members of the PCR advisory board and other experts in physician...

• Payer mix, ED crowding drive emergency physician comp

  As U.S. emergency departments (ED) become more crowded, emergency medicine physicians (EMP) are...

• Aging doctors present part-time compensation obstacles

  Part-time physicians haven't presented a major compensation challenge for groups in the past-a...

• Create fair employment agreements to recruit, retain doctors

  Drafting an employment agreement with an incoming physician requires careful balance, particularly...

Issue 11, November 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Hospitals still searching for on-call pay solutions

  Most hospitals no longer ask themselves whether they should compensate specialists for providing...

• Surveys show flattening physician compensation

  In the past few years the healthcare industry has developed an annual fall ritual: CMS proposes a...

• Compensation growth slows down for cardiologists

  Despite being one of the most sought-after specialties, cardiologists in group practices...

• Exception to 'incremental expenses' rule will aid rural recruitment

  Hospitals will have a little more leeway when it comes to recruiting physicians to group practices...

Issue 10, October 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Facilities are learning from past physician management and compensation mistakes

  The last time hospitals and health systems aggressively pursued physician employment and practice...

• Phase III adds flexibility to Stark regulations

  Providers who have followed the six-year saga of tweaks and additions to the Stark self-referral...

• NC hospital turns practices around with productivity

  Like many hospitals that owned physician practices or employed physicians in the mid-1990s...

• Consider two alternatives to noncompete clauses

  Noncompete agreements are a powerful tool for a practice or hospital to keep a physician from...

Issue 9, September 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Proposed Stark changes may limit entrepreneurship

  The Stark self-referral law is arguably one the most important federal regulations when it comes to...

• CRNA compensation rivals some physician salaries

  Certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA) aren't physicians, but for many facilities they're...

• New wRVU values skew certain compensation plans

  One of the most popular models hospitals use when employing physicians is an income distribution...

• The earning curve: How production, comp change over time

  Physician productivity-and as a result, compensation-isn't uniform throughout a career. So if a...

• Review deferred comp plans for compliance with new regs

  Congress' attempts to crack down on potentially abusive deferred compensation strategies, made...

Issue 8, August 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Lower-earning females keep primary care afloat

  Given the often dramatically higher compensation levels for surgeons and medical specialists, it is...

• Identify fixed, variable expenses for efficient cost accounting

  Expense allocation is one of the trickier aspects of developing a compensation plan. Many groups...

• Pay for performance experiences growing pains

  Pay for performance (P4P) is no longer a nascent concept on the distant horizon, nor has it...

• Update buy-sell agreements to sidestep conflict

  A lot can change in a practice over the course of a few years-the group's culture can shift, its...

Issue 7, July 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• MGMA surveys reveal importance of management

  Whether it's an OB/GYN practice paying high medical liability insurance rates, a group of...

• Legal restrictions hinder hospital-physician gainsharing

  After the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) is-sued a series of advisory opinions granting...

• Median psychiatry comp nears $200K as physician pool shrinks

  Median compensation levels for psychiatry are some of the lowest of any nonprimary care...

• Focusing on overhead can cost practices revenue, compensation

  To cut costs, one physician fires his office manager and hires his untrained spouse. Another denies...

• R - E + S: Subsidize hospital-employed physicians

  In nearly all private practices, the compensation model starts with the basic algebraic equation...

Issue 6, June 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Competition between physicians, hospitals contributes to decline in revenue

  Physicians and hospitals have traditionally had symbiotic, if strained, relationships. But market...

• Practices hesitate to participate in upcoming PQRI program

  Like many medical groups across the country, administrators at Morton Plant Mease Primary Care...

• Patient mix, low reimbursement keep geriatric compensation low

  Demographics suggest that geriatricians should be doing pretty well-their patient base is growing...

• Focus on supplemental compensation when recruiting physicians

  Developing a compensation package that will attract phy-sicians to your facility involves more than...

Issue 5, May 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Academic practices emphasize clinical work to compete with private sector

  The compensation gap between physicians in academic and private practices-for both specialists and...

• Academic medical center develops productivity-based incentive plan

  Like many academic facilities across the country, Carolinas Medical Center (CMC), an academic...

• Pay attention to factors that indirectly influence compensation

  Typically, when a practice considers restructuring its income distribution plan (IDP) for both its...

• Reconsider full-time equivalent definitions when using part-time physicians

  Part-time work schedules have become increasingly popular among physicians in recent years, and as...

Issue 4, April 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Turnover rates reflect shifting demographics

  The average overall rate of physician turnover remained relatively stagnant between 2005 and 2006...

• Demand, compensation climb for female urologists

  In 2006, urologists earned a median total compensation of $336,364, up slightly from $335,731 in...

• Offer nonqualified deferred compensation to boost physician compensation

  In their efforts to attract and retain top-notch physicians, many practices focus only on ways to...

• Orthopedics, primary care most requested specialties

  The average annual starting compensation for orthopedic surgeons climbed 17.8%, settling at...

Issue 3, March 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Locum tenens demand shifts toward primary care

  Demand for locum tenens physicians in family practices increased dramatically between 2004 and...

• Boost physician recruitment by using health professional shortage area

  The effects of an industrywide physician shortage are never evenly distributed. A large hospital or...

• Poll physicians to gauge compensation plan preferences

  If you don't involve physicians in the compensation plan development process, the chances of...

• More physicians compensated based on quality, HSC survey shows

  The percentage of physicians in group practices whose compensation was based partly on quality...

Issue 2, February 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Low comp creates challenges for neurology

  Although neurology compensation has been increasing steadily in recent years-neurologists earned a...

• NPPs see minimal compensation increases in 2006

  Median total cash compensation for all nonphysician practitioners (NPP) increased only minimally in...

• Strengthen ED coverage with these 15 alternatives to on-call pay

  Providing adequate emergency department (ED) call coverage is one of the top challenges that the...

• If you don't ask appropriately, they don't have to tell

  The recruiting process is often a time-consuming one, and it can be increasingly frustrating when...

Issue 1, January 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Doctors want slower pace, lower liability rates, MGMA survey says

  Pennsylvania and Texas placed more physicians in 2005 than any other states, according to the MGMA...

• The art of negotiation: What not to do

  You work tirelessly to woo a candidate. But once that candidate expresses interest in your...

• Survey turns up turmoil between hospitals and physicians

  With more physicians drifting away from hospitals to become owners of specialized outpatient...

• Many geographic regions see malpractice rates level off

  Medical malpractice insurance rates are stabilizing after skyrocketing in the early 2000s...

• Use of recruitment incentives spikes in 2006, survey shows

  Driven by an increasingly competitive physician-recruiting environment, the average value of...