Physicians in academic settings make less money than those in private practices. And although university-based physicians tend to treat patients with higher levels of acuity, a new study confirms that this compensation trend will persist.
The recent Medical Group Management Association’s report looked at an ongoing 10-year trend in compensation and found that, despite modest growth in compensation, academic physicians’ salaries still trail both the earnings of private-practice physicians and inflation rates.
Academic physicians, particularly specialists, often are seeing the sickest patients, said David Gans, MGMA’s vice president of practice management resources. “Many times, these are publicly funded institutions, so they often have a large indigent population as well,” he added. University-based practices “typically have a poorer payer mix than private practices.”
But physicians working in the academic setting see many benefits in their practices. University-based physicians are compensated in ways beyond their salaries, Gans said.
“They are part of an academic medical center for teaching and research, and there’s the prestige of being among the best and the brightest,” Gans said.
“They also might not feel that they are on the treadmills that (private practice) doctors feel they’re on. And it’s very rewarding to be working with residents and watching them learn.”
University physicians often receive compensation from outside the university, such as book royalties, Gans noted.
“Physicians in academic practices are there voluntarily because they like the environment,” he said. “To move to a private practice, they would forgo the many benefits of being in an academic setting.”
Wages for academic physicians are on the rise, despite the persisting trend. “You can see increases in productivity, cost-efficiency and new procedures that result in revenue, and it filters back to the doctors as compensation,” Gans said.