Data For 2010 Shows A Slight Increase In Compensation For Medical Specialties
Although nearly 70% of medical specialties saw increases in compensation in 2010, increases were marginal, reports the American Medical Group Association’s 2011 Medical Group Compensation and Financial Survey.
Primary care specialties saw about a 2.6% increase in 2010, while other medical specialties averaged an increase of 2.4% and surgical specialties averaged around 3.8%. Specialties with the largest increases in compensation were allergy (6.38%), emergency medicine (6.37%), and hospitalist-internal medicine (6.29%).
In comparison, in 2009, primary care and surgical specialties saw about a 3.8% increase, while other medical specialties saw 2.4%.
Operating margins for medical groups are increasingly thin, the group reported in a press release. Only organizations in the Western region were nearing break-even at a loss of $27 per physician. All other regions operated at a loss per physician; Eastern, nealy $1,600 per physician; Southern, nearly $1,900; and Northern, nearly $10,700.
Many of the losses were supplemented by other non-clinical revenue sources and/or funding from health systems.
The AMGA 2011 Medical Group Compensation and Financial Survey represents responses from 239 medical groups employing 51,700 providers (55.6% of groups report more than 100 physicians). The survey was done by a national accounting firm.
In case you missed it …
A new blog is offering near-daily posts on retractions from the peer review literature. The blog, Retraction Watch, is a watchdog service offered by two journalists with a long history in scientific reporting. The pair offer reactions ranging from withdrawals ranging from simple errors to outright plagiarism.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
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