Physicians in all care settings will see a slight pay hike in 2013, with salaries expected to rise by an average of 2.6 percent, according to a recent survey conducted by global consulting firm Hay Group.
The results from Hay Group’s 2012 Physician Compensation Survey show that physicians working in group-based practices can expect to see the largest pay increases of 3.0 percent in 2013, while those working in hospital-based settings can expect the smallest pay increases of 2.0 percent.
Primary care physicians employed by hospitals can expect a 2.0 percent salary increase in 2013, while group-based primary care physicians can expect a 3.0 percent salary increase.
According to the survey, primary care physicians are well positioned for bigger salary increases in the coming years thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which is expected to increase demand for primary care services when it is fully implemented in 2014.
“Given the growing shortage of primary care physicians and the expected increase in demand from patients seeking care, we expect to see salary increases for primary care physicians trend upward over the coming years as employers vie for the best talent,” said Jim Otto, senior principal in Hay Group’s Healthcare Practice.
Other key study findings include:
- Hospital-based physician specialists can expect a 2.0 percent salary increase in 2013, while group-based physician specialists can expect a 3.0 percent salary increase.
- The use of employment contracts continued to increase in 2012. In hospitals, 70 percent of physicians had employment contracts, compared to 64 percent in 2011. For physicians working in group-based practices, 67 percent had employment contracts in 2012, while only 56 percent had contracts in 2011.
- Measures for determining incentive payouts continue to be dominated by quality and patient satisfaction. For individual performance metrics, 77 percent of organizations reported that they used “quality” and 66 percent relied on “patient satisfaction” to measure physician performance. Conversely, only 39 percent reported “outcomes” as a performance metric for physicians. For group performance measurement, 56 percent reported “quality” as a metric, while 50 percent reported “patient satisfaction” as a measurement used to determine incentive payouts.
- Most organizations (88 percent) provided some form of malpractice insurance to their physicians. Of those organizations, 97 percent provided the insurance at no cost to the physician.
There are a few factors that could potentially slow the rate of salary increases for physicians in the near term, said Otto, including the competing demands for revenue spending and the use of mid-level practitioners – such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants – for primary care services.
“These factors are likely to influence the actual amount of pay increases, but I would not expect that in and of themselves they result in decisions not to increase pay,” added Otto.
[See also: Nurses in physicians' offices see salary hike]