In relation to the consumer price index (CPI), specialty physician salaries are taking a hit. But radiologists have managed to sustain steady gains in compensation, according to a report published by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) of Englewood, CO.
The study, titled "Physician Compensation and Production Survey: 2007 Report Based on 2006 Data," includes figures submitted by practices that provided information on more than 50,000 providers.
Compensation for 60% of polled specialties did not keep pace with inflation in 2006. Specialists reported a lower rate of median compensation as compared with primary care physicians, with a 1.7 overall increase for $322,259 annually. The specialists who responded to the survey also reported that their production rate increased faster than their compensation by 2.3% overall. Primary care doctors have it even worse: median compensation for all primary care physicians rose just 2% to $171,519 annually in 2006, and this group of doctors reported a 3.7% increase in production.
But radiologists reported regular gains, with a 4.7% increase in median compensation in 2006 of $446,517 annually, the report said. Over the past five years, radiologists' salaries have increased about 5% per year -- not huge jumps in pay, but stable, according to MGMA.
The main factor influencing the trend in decreased compensation for physicians is that reimbursement amounts are falling, according to MGMA. And the fact that more and more Americans are uninsured doesn't help. Combine shaky reimbursements with a rapid increase in the complexity of administrative tasks, and it's no wonder salaries are at a standstill, according to Mick Kasher, MGMA's director of survey operations.
"The amount of time and money it takes now for a practice to file claims with insurance companies is unbelievable," Kasher said. "Doctors themselves are doing more administrative tasks -- if a carrier denies a charge, the doctor has to go back to the medical record and justify the service's medical necessity. It's getting very expensive for practices to chase down insurance money."
By Kate Madden Yee
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
August 31, 2007
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