Compensation Issues

Hospital CEOs sent a clear message in a recent Thomson Reuters survey that physician alignment and cost reductions will be at the top of their priorities over the next few years. However, as more physicians are becoming hospital-employed, will cost…

Physicians at clinics within Minneapolis-based Fairview Health are experiencing a different type of salary formula, as half of their income will depend on external ratings such as patient satisfaction surveys and quality-of-care scores, according to a Star Tribune report.

Here are 25 statistics on recent physician salary and compensation trends.

Of the nine different geographic areas in the United States, annual median physician compensation was the highest in the North Central so far in 2011 at roughly $225,000, according to Medscape's 2011 Physician Compensation Survey.

Hospital ownership of an orthopedic surgeon's practice could impact the physician's annual compensation, according to the Medical Group Management Association's "Physician Compensation and Production Survey: 2011 Report Based on 2010 Data."

Of physician specialists in the United States, general surgeons are least satisfied with their compensation while dermatologists feel they are most fairly compensated, according to Medscape's 2011 Physician Compensation Survey.

The American Academy of Family Physicians has sent a letter to the American Medical Association demanding that Medicare payments to primary care physicians be changed, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Roughly 76 percent of physician search assignments in 2010-11 offer a signing bonus, up from 46 percent in 2004-05, according to a Merritt Hawkins report.

CEOs at several non-profit hospitals outside metropolitan Atlanta received at least $1 million in total compensation during their organizations' most recently reported fiscal years, according to a Georgia Health News report.

The 2011 Healthcare Financial Management Compensation Survey showed the average annual compensation for healthcare CFOs reached $224,500, up 7 percent from the past two years, according to an AllBusiness report.