Compensation Issues

Over the past decade, physician employment has grown by 32 percent at hospitals, and roughly 20 percent of the practicing physician workforce now works for a hospital. This explosion of employed physicians signals several factors: the move toward accountable care…

Nancy Wilson, RN, board member of the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District in Garberville, Calif., wrote a letter in the Redwood Times defending the recent salary hike of SHCHD Administrator Harry Jasper.

Honolulu-based Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, which runs 14 hospitals and healthcare facilities on five islands, released salary figures for its top executives, and CEO Bruce Anderson's salary is the highest at $242,250, according to a Honolulu Civil Beat report.

Two executives who used to work at Quincy (Mass.) Medical Center and were fired after Boston-based Steward Health Care bought the hospital now seek severance payments for a combined $603,000, according to a Patriot Ledger report.

Hospitals looking to employ physicians have a plethora to manage in terms of compensation, and understanding the differences between executive benefits and physician benefits could help compensation arrangements, according to an article from healthcare compensation firm Integrated Healthcare Strategies.

A recent report comparing the salary of orthopedic surgeons to other professionals, such as dentists and lawyers, researchers found orthopedic surgery is less lucrative than the common perception of the profession, according to a Medscape report.

Erlanger Health System, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., has awarded a severance package to another executive, the third such buyout since the end of last year, according to a Chattanooga Times Free Press report.

The base salary for a hospital chief medical information officer varied widely in 2011, with the most common salary falling between $200,000 and $300,000, according to the 2012 CMIO Compensation Survey.

Although academic hospitalists generate close to or more billable clinical activity — or encounters — than their non-academic colleagues, they earn less in compensation across both main specialties, according to the Society of Hospital Medicine's and Medical Group Management Association's…

The American Medical Association's Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee — the group that makes influential decisions in how physicians are paid by Medicare — has added two spots to represent primary care physicians more, according to an American…