2024 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives
an aging population. Adding CRNAs allows healthcare facilities to increase the number of procedures they perform while controlling costs, as CRNA average starting salaries, though rising, remain less than those of anesthesiologists. Like NPs, CRNAs also generate revenue. According to AMN Healthcare’s 2023 Physician Billing Report , CRNAs submit an annual average of $1,750,281 in billing to commercial payors. CRNAs are particularly important in rural areas, where they represent approximately 80% of anesthesia providers ( The Relationship Between Rural Hospital Closures and NPs and CRNAs. Nursing Outlook. Nov-Dec 2021 ).
NPS AND CRNAS SEEING YEAR-OVER-YEAR STARTING SALARY INCREASES 2023/24
2022/23 INCREASE
CRNAs
$279,000 $164,000
$218,000 $151,000
+31.6% +8.6%
NPs
Physician Contract Structures Physicians typically are offered employment contracts that feature a starting base salary that can be supplemented through a production bonus. Sixty-two percent of the search engagements AMN Healthcare conducted in the 2024 Review period featured this type of contract structure, the same number as last year. An additional 32% featured a straight salary, also the same number as last year, while 5% featured an income guarantee, up from 4% last year. Salaries with production bonuses are commonly offered by hospitals and medical groups as an incentive to reward specific physician behaviors, such as volume of work performed or adherence to quality guidelines. The straight salary model is more frequently used by urgent care centers, FQHCs and academic settings. AMN Healthcare has observed that fewer large medical groups are offering the salary with production bonus model than have done so in the past. For example, 75% of the contracts tracked in the 2017/18 Review featured a salary with production bonus, while only 17% featured a straight salary. Some medical groups have found that the straight salary model entails less ambiguity and is less likely to cause friction with physicians, and so have stopped offering production bonuses.
of physicians receive employment contracts with a base salary plus a production bonus 62%
Income guarantees, which are essentially loans that must be repaid (but may be forgiven over time) generally are used to establish physicians in solo or small independent practices. Income guarantees were once the standard contract model, but as the number of private practice settings has declined, so has the use of income guarantees. Production Bonus Structures Production bonuses determine the maximum income that physicians can potentially earn beyond their base salary. These bonuses are calculated using a variety of metrics, including:
1
2
3
4
5
Relative Value Units (RVUs)
Net Collections
Gross Billings
Patient Encounters
Quality
© AMN Healthcare 2024
AMNHealthcare.com | 32
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease