Dive Brief:
- Physician compensation remained relatively flat in 2015, with an average increase of 3.1% versus 2.8% in 2014, according to the American Medical Group Association.
- The AMGA 's survey found 74% of physician specialties reported increases in compensation.
- A recent report from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) showed physician executives at hospital-owned practices received about $70,000 in bonuses and incentive payments, while those at physician-owned practices about $36,000 in bonuses.
Dive Insight:
Specialties with the biggest increases last year were emergency medicine (9.6%); cardiac and thoracic surgery (8.1%); cardiology (6.9%) and hypertension; and nephrology (6.7%).
Compensation for primary care specialists rose 3.6%, and reversed a 0.3% decline in 2014, AMGA says. The average increase for other medical specialties was 3.0%, slightly less than the 3.2% seen in 2014, while surgical specialties experienced an average growth of 3.6%, up from 2.0% a year earlier.
While healthcare economics is subject to ebbs and flows, the move to value-based incentives for care requires a more team-based approach,” AMGA President and Donald Fisher said in the release. “It will be interesting to watch compensation trends over the next few years as these value-based models become more prevalent.”