Dive Brief:
- A Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) report released Monday shows health executives and administrators receive the highest compensation in hospital-owned and large practices.
- The report is based on data of about 67,000 U.S. managers and staff in the healthcare industry.
- MGMA also provided comments for the proposed Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) implementation rule three days before the deadline arguing that the framework "would not achieve CMS’ overarching goal of promoting high-value healthcare through patient-centric, flexible and streamlined payment incentives."
Dive Insight:
“The business value of skilled medical group practice executives and administrators is increasing and will only continue to increase, particularly given the growing burden of complexity within the regulatory and payer environments,” MGMA President and CEO Halee Fischer-Wright said in a statement.
The report found the median compensation in 2015 varied on four factors:
Ownership: At hospital-owned practices, senior and general managers had a higher compensation than those in practices owned by physicians. In 2015, the median compensation for non-physician CEOs in hospital-owned practices was $305,000, whereas those in physician-owned practices earned about $242,000. However, physician executives' median compensation at physician-owned practices was at $350,000 while those at hospital-owned practices made $300,000.
Practice size: Medical group practice executives with 25 or fewer employees earned about $181,000 while those with 151 or more employees earned $430,000 in median compensation. Their peers in mid-sized practices of 26 to 50 staff members earned approximately $252,000.
Geography: CEOs and executive directors in the Midwest earned the highest compensation, where those at larger practices received at least $447,500, while their peers in the East received less, according to MGMA.
Bonuses: Physician executives at hospital-owned practices received roughly $70,000 in bonuses and incentive payments. Those at physician-owned practices took home about $36,000 in bonuses.
In its notes to CMS with regards to MACRA, MGMA offered several recommendations to help improve the framework of the two quality payment programs the agency aims to implement with the legislation" the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and alternative payment models (APMs). MGMA suggested the start date for the first MIPS performance period be Jan. 1, 2018 and that the quality and advancing care information performance periods be reduced to "any 90 consecutive days using sampling and attestation methodologies that ensure statistical validity."