Get the latest insights from SullivanCotter’s Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey!
The pressure on financial sustainability continues to increase as physician compensation in community health systems remains high. Lower professional collections and higher physician pay when compared to the national market are driving costs up. What can you do about it? Turn insight into action with the right data!
When compared to national benchmarks, physician total cash compensation (TCC) is higher in community health systems across three of the four specialty categories. However, collections for professional services are flat or even lower than national benchmarks.
This results in significantly higher TCC to collections ratios – indicating that physicians within community health systems are paid higher for each professional services dollar they collect than national data would indicate. National and community wRVU data is virtually the same, further indicating that community health system collections are lower than national benchmarks on a per-wRVU basis.
How can community health systems address these challenges?
Carefully balanced compensation design and recruitment:
- Implement core performance expectations – including a minimum level of services tied to base salary before any potential productivity incentives are paid
- Align productivity incentives and financial affordability with a specific focus on the retention of high performers
- Include non-productivity incentives, such as physician and APP care coordination, that are aligned with payer performance measures
- Ensure advanced practice provider (APP) compensation program is externally competitive and aligned closely with the physician plan
Thoughtful workforce planning:
- Perform consistent provider needs assessments for physicians and APPs
- Focus on recruitment and retention within the local community – including incumbents and training programs with geographic ties
- Ensure that succession planning is proactive and coordinated considering the high cost to replace providers, and staff
Performance enhancement:
- Use of collaborative care models to ensure top-of-license practice for all providers and care team members
- Develop care teams with shared incentives
- Improve patient-centered access via joint panels, maximizing APP scheduling, and more
Learn more about our Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey!
It’s time to strengthen your physician workforce strategy…
Tap into the industry’s most expansive and detailed dataset to support your organization with critical insight into compensation, pay practices, and productivity benchmarks. This survey includes information from 500 organizations on nearly 232,000 individual physicians
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Clinical productivity data and ratios, including collections and wRVUs
- Base pay, total cash compensation and total cost of benefits
- Value-based compensation approaches
- Multiple position levels from staff physicians to department chairs
- Patient encounters and panel sizes
- Quality and performance incentives
- Bonuses, relocation assistance, and other perquisites
- Data reported both nationally and regionally by organization type, position level, and specialty
