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MGMA Releases Compensation and Productivity Data

From: The eWire, 6.30.2010

by Jason Carris

New hospitalist compensation and productivity information is available via the 2010 Physician Compensation and Production Survey Report, the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) annual survey. However, HM leaders are urging restraint to group directors and individual hospitalists pining for the latest industry benchmarks.

“We want to be careful not to read too much into trends at this point. This is a new set of data,” says William “Tex” Landis, MD, FHM, medical director of Wellspan Hospitalists in York, Pa., and chair of SHM’s Practice Analysis Committee. “I think the trending might be beneficial, but I think it should be done with great caution.”

The report, which surveyed 4,211 hospitalists from 443 groups, shows median hospitalist compensation at $215,000 annually. That’s an increase of about $20,000 per year compared with SHM’s 2007-2008 survey data.

The report also shows the median number of work RVUs at 4,107 per hospitalist per year.

SHM, which collaborated on the survey with MGMA, will release a more detailed compensation and productivity report in September. That report replaces SHM’s biannual survey, and will break down such hospitalist-specific data as night coverage, financial support, and staffing models.

The MGMA survey adds new layers of detail, as compared with past SHM surveys. In addition to mean and median values, the MGMA report breaks down production and compensation values to 25th-, 75th-, and 90th-percentile ranges. “It provides a lot more ways to cut the data than [SHM] has traditionally done,” says Leslie Flores, SHM senior advisor of practice management.

Although he warns of taking the MGMA survey information too literally, Dr. Landis knows his peers are anxiously awaiting the new numbers. “It provides the best possible data to help with optimal decision-making, especially as it pertains to resourcing hospitalist programs,” he says. “What will be more important, however, will be what next year’s numbers show; then, we will be comparing like with like.”