Pediatric hospitalists saw a 7.2 percent increase in median compensation rising from $160,038 in 2009 to $171,617 in 2010, though their compensation still significantly trailed adult medicine hospitalists whose median compensation was $220,619.
The new compensation figures were released in the report “State of Hospital Medicine: 2011 Report Based on 2010 Data, from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) and Society of Hospital Medicine.
“I think (the compensation increase is) a reflection of the market and demand for hospitalists, and the value that hospitals and other healthcare payers see that hospitalists bring,” says William “Tex” Landis, MD, medical director of Wellspan Hospitalists in York, Pa., and chair of SHM’s Practice Analysis committee.
While hospitalists earned more in 2010, they also reported increases in productivity, as the annual median adult hospitalist physician work relative value unit (wRVU) rate was 4,166, a 1.4 percent increase over last year.
The study also found a variety of payment structures for hospitalists with total compensation often a combination of base salary with bonus payments tied to incentives relating to production and overall performance. Taking into account these varied compensation systems, the report found that those with the highest earnings – a median of $288,154 – earned 50 percent or less of that in base salary. Hospitalists that were paid a salary only with no incentive payments earned about 25 percent less with median compensation of $205,003 last year.
“The compensation methodology is still evolving, which provides increased potential for hospitalists to negotiate from a straight base salary to base salary-plus–incentive program based on production and quality metrics,” said Jeffrey B. Milburn, MBA, CMPE, MGMA Health Care Consulting Group in a press release announcing the study findings. “Since this data indicates hospitalists with a higher percentage of base salary earn less median compensation, it’s important for both the physician and the hospital system to understand and balance the relationship between compensation and productivity.”
Hospitals may be starting to lean away from providing incentive payments, though. In 2009, among all hospitalists surveyed the average hospitalist earned 76 percent of their total compensation in base salary. In 2010 that figure had jumped to 80 percent.
The State of Hospital Medicine: 2011 Report Based on 2010 Data contains information on 4,633 hospitalists in 412 groups and 726 academic hospitalists in 68 academic hospital medicine practices. The 2011 report also includes group-level data on compensation methodology, group size and staffing mix, turnover and growth, staffing models and financial support received.