Ten Keys to Physician Retention
9. Offer Clear, Competitive, Fair Compensation When the majority of physicians were independent practice owners and essentially paid themselves, data on physician compensation was limited. Today, there are a variety of sources that track physician earnings, including the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), Sullivan, Cotter & Associates, Medscape and others. In our annual Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives , AMN Healthcare tracks physician starting salaries, rather than total physician compensation, as is reported by other data sources. It therefore offers benchmarks for what hospitals, medical groups, and other facilities are offering to attract physicians, either those out of residency or those already in practice. Below are average starting salaries for several highly recruited specialties as tracked by the 2024 Review:
AVERAGE STARTING PHYSICIAN SALARIES BY SPECIALTY
GASTROENTEROLOGY
$ 531,000
RADIOLOGY
$ 495,000
OB/GYN
$ 389,000
FAMILY MEDICINE
$ 271,000
Source: AMN Healthcare 2024 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives
The Review also tracks average signing bonuses, relocation allowances, continuing medical education (CME) allowances and other incentives used to recruit physicians. Physicians are aware of these data sources and usually have a fairly accurate view of what is competitive in their specialty. Hospitals seeking to maintain or enhance physician relations should offer physicians income in the range of what is competitive to ensure they feel valued and do not seek opportunities elsewhere. However, today the way physician compensation is structured may be as important as the amount that is offered. The majority of the physician search engagements that AMN Healthcare conducts feature a base salary with a production bonus. The production bonus is the physician’s path to maximizing his or her financial potential. A family physician, for example, might be paid a base salary of $270,000 with a potential production bonus of $70,000. In most physician contracts, the production bonus is achieved through the number of Relative Value Units (RVUs) the physician generates, the number of patients they see, or the amount of revenue they collect. These are all volume-based metrics typical of the fee-for-service model and they usually can be tracked objectively.
© AMN Healthcare 2024
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