New data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) reveals a steady rise in compensation for physician and non-physician providers over the last year, plus growth in productivity among many specialties prior to COVID-19.
For the research, compiled into its annual Provider Compensation and Production Report, MGMA, a Colorado-based association for professionals who lead medical practices, received supplemental data with a 14 percent increase in total participating providers in early 2020, representing data from more than 168,000 physicians and non-physician providers (NPPs) in over 6,300 organizations, the highest number of participants to date. Importantly, MGMA opened the 2020 Compensation and Production Survey in early January, collecting data on physician and non-physician provider compensation and productivity reflective of 2019—before the pandemic began to impact U.S. healthcare.
The findings showed that average total primary care physician compensation rose 2.6 percent from 2018 to 2019, reaching $273,437. Overall, compensation for most physician specialties continued to increase. Urgent care and pulmonary specialists led these salary increases, from $259,661 to $277,393 and $385,024 to $406,245, respectively, the data showed. Among the report’s key findings, the top five most sizable increases in total compensation for established providers between 2018 and 2019 include the following medical specialties:
• Psychiatry (general): 7.7 percent
• Urgent care: 6.8 percent
• Pulmonary medicine (general): 5.5 percent
• Internal medicine (general): 4 percent
• Urology: 3.9 percent
Of course, the COVID-19 crisis has drastically impacted all facets of healthcare operations, and next year’s report will certainly reflect that. According to an April 7 MGMA Stat poll, 97 percent of medical practice leaders reported a drop in patient volume amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A separate COVID-19 financial impact report by MGMA found that, on average, practices reported a 55 percent decrease in revenue and 60 percent decrease in patient volume since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. These significant impacts to medical practices of all sizes and specialties forced many to lay off and/or furlough staff.
A more recent MGMA Stat poll found that 89 percent of medical practice leaders said they have returned to doing in-person visits. More than half (54 percent) reported that all of their providers are seeing patients in person, while 20 percent said 76 percent to 99 percent of providers were seeing patients in person. Numerous respondents with 50 percent of normal provider capacity noted that providers are alternating weeks and keeping schedules half full, and that patient loads remain much lower than pre-COVID-19 norms.
“With 1.4 million healthcare workers furloughed in the last month alone, this 2019 compensation data will serve as a baseline for benchmarking 2020 operations in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Halee Fischer-Wright, M.D., president and CEO, MGMA. “COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry with productivity halting for many medical practices. Compensation models will look different in the near future based on shifting productivity and demands on physicians and the healthcare industry overall.”
In the physician compensation survey, the data revealed that many physicians experienced an increase in productivity, even upwards of a 10 percent increase for some specialties. “In a field with growing shortages, physicians are working harder than ever to meet the needs of patients by offering more appointment times and performing more procedures and surgeries,” researchers stated.
Further, many physicians are compensated completely or at least in part based on their work relative value units (wRVU) productivity, so increasing volumes is beneficial to physicians in terms of compensation while also meeting patients’ needs. With almost all physicians current tied to productivity or collections-based pay models, the correlation between increased volume and higher pay will remain a trend, MGMA researchers noted.
However, with volumes decreasing for most practitioners as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, compensation will also likely suffer, they added. Providers on salary-based contracts are shielded more from lost productivity, but their salaries are dependent on the financial viability of their organization.
What’s more, according to the researchers, “Beyond the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, projections of significant physician workforce shortages throughout the country by 2030 will likely intensify demand for physicians, which could drive compensation higher.”
