For physicians seeking employment as well as the practices preparing to hire, compensation reports can lend useful perspective. But providers beware: the numbers can vary. So you may want to treat them as guidelines, not gospel.
That's the word from the American Academy of Neurology, which in a new report says that methodology differences between compensation reports mean results vary and even contradict each other.
Tommy Bohannon, vice president for AMN Healthcare, told Neurology Today, "Take in all this information you see -- and take it with a grain of salt. Use it as a guidepost, but don't expect things to go well if you're trying to make a hard-and-fast decision based on what's black and white on a salary survey somewhere."
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As an example, Merritt Hawkins' 2017 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruitment Incentives was based on 3,287 search assignments and the data in the report came from actual written offers including salary, bonuses and other offered incentives. There was no survey and it did not tout numbers for total annual physician compensation.
On the other hand, Pinnacle Health Group's 2017 Annual Physician Compensation Survey analyzed responses from 114 physicians and 160 organizations to a survey. Not surprisingly, their projections for neurologists' pay ranged from $305,000 for a new job in that field according to Merritt Hawkins, to $249,786 according to Pinnacle.
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Still, both reports could be handy in spotting trends, and could at least provide educated guidance when negotiating, Neurology Today said, and the search for information going into negotiations shouldn't necessarily be about looking for the best source, but rather multiple sources that support each other overall.
"It's not finding the perfect one-source of information; it's finding multiple sources that are all in the same ballpark," said Katie Donovan, founder of Equal Pay Negotiations. "When you start finding pretty much the same numbers, you know you are heading in the right direction."
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sanborn@himssmedia.com