The report, issued Feb. 4, includes data from 200,000 providers showing the investment or subsidy per physician was up 5% to $306,792 and work relative value units increased 8% to 6,313 year over year for the quarter.
“This data shows us that, while physician payment is rising, providers are working more while generating less revenue per unit of work,” said Matthew Bates, managing director and physician enterprise service line leader with Kaufman Hall. “Looking ahead, alternative risk-sharing structures like value-based models have shown promise — particularly in primary care — in increasing revenue without solely relying on greater output from doctors.”
Overall for medical care providers, the median net patient revenue per provider FTE increased 9.7% year over year to $399,980. The breakdown by specialty for the fourth quarter of 2024 was:
- Primary care: $498,000
- Medical specialty: $394,000
- Surgical specialty: $405,000
- Hospital-based specialty: $255,000
The median physician wRVUs per full time physician hit 5,976 for primary care; 7,139 for medical specialty, 6,948 for the surgical specialty and 5,444 for the hospital-based specialty. But net patient revenue per wRVU dropped 1% from 2023 and 2% from 2024.
“Overall revenue per wRVU continues to fall, highlighting broader reimbursement challenges and an indication that traditional fee-for-service structures aren’t sustainable,” according to the report. “When examining revenue per wRVU by specialty cohort, primary care revenue is holding steady while other specialties have seen a decline. Value-based care and other risk sharing models could be a material driver of these differences, and point to value-based care as having a positive impact on revenue.”
Paid compensation was on the rise. The median physician paid compensation per full time physician hit $371,589 in the fourth quarter, up 8% year over year. The fourth quarter breakdown by specialty was:
- Primary care: $305,000
- Medical specialty: $420,000
- Surgical specialty: $491,000
- Hospital-based specialty: $368,000
Total expenses per full time provider hit $645,530 in the fourth quarter and the median labor as a percent of total expense hit 83.9%, up from 83.6% the year prior. Despite being more productive, physicians had less help. The median full time support staff per 10,000 wRVUs dropped from 3.28 in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 3.01 in the last quarter.