Modest compensation gains for most doctors

American Medical Group Assn. annual survey also reveals that more medical groups are using RVUs to measure productivity.

By Julie A. Jacob, AMNews staff. Aug. 13, 2001.

Earnings for some specialists jumped last year, while earnings for primary care physicians inched up only slightly, according to the American Medical Group Assn.'s 2001 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey.

Median compensation increased the most for urologists, whose average earnings rose 8.5% between 1999 and 2000. Gastroenterologists, 8.1%; anesthesiologists, 7.4%; and dermatologists, 6.4%; also posted significant increases in median compensation.

Compensation for other specialists did not rise as steeply. Cardiologists reported a 3.1% increase; ob-gyns, 2.3%; diagnostic radiologists (interventional), 2%; emergency physicians, 1.6%; and general surgeons, 0.6%.

Earnings for primary care physicians edged up only modestly. Family physicians reported a 1.9% increase in median compensation; internists, 1%; and pediatricians, 3%.

The survey results were not surprising, said Shawn Schwartz, a manager with RSM McGladrey Inc., a consulting firm in Minneapolis that conducted the survey for the AMGA.

Earnings for primary care physicians are likely to remain flat for the next few years, Schwartz said.

While compensation for a few specialties rose significantly, due to increased demand for their services, compensation for many other specialties did not, he noted.

"Overall, there is such pressure on reduced reimbursement and cost containment in medical groups that they are doing the best they can to manage that human resource demand against financial pressures," Schwartz said. [...]