Dive Brief:
- In 2015, roughly one-third (32%) of physicians received a production bonus based wholly or in part on value-based care metrics, up from 23% the previous year, Forbes reports.
- The share of total compensation tied to quality also crept up, from 5% in 2015 to 6% this year, according to Merritt Hawkins’ 2016 survey of physician recruiting incentives.
- The shift away from fee-for-service medicine comes as Medicare and private insurers are pushing providers to adopt lower-cost, value-based care models.
Dive Insight:
In Merritt Hawkins latest review, quality metrics accounted for 29% of the total bonus amount offered to physicians. These typically are tied to features such as meaningful use and patient satisfaction.
Despite this shift, though, the majority of physicians continue to be paid on a fee-for-service, or volume, basis.
“We are moving in the direction of value-based compensation, but the reality just doesn’t match that aspiration yet,” Travis Singleton, senior vice president at Merritt Hawkins, told Forbes.
Signing bonuses are still widely used to recruit physicians, up 4% to 77% this year, the survey shows.
The southwest and Texas had the highest rate of fee-for-service medicine and the lowest number of doctors per capita, pushing salaries to as much as $239,000 for a family practitioner — compared with $210,000 for an FP in the northeast.
In March, HHS announced 30% of Medicare payments are now tethered to alternative payment models. This was well on pace for the agency's goals.