MGMA: Doctors on "unsustainable course"

The organization's survey shows the continuing trend of physicians having to work longer and harder to stay afloat.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Nov. 6, 2006.

Robert Garrison, MD, a family physician in Ventura, Calif., says it seems like every year he's "working harder and making less."

"You get discouraged, and you start thinking do you want to do something else besides private practice," he said.

According to a recent survey by the Medical Group Management Assn., Dr. Garrison is not alone in his lament. The organization's most recent Physician Compensation and Production Survey concluded, as it has the past several years, that primary care physicians' gross charges are greater than their pay increases -- a sign that physicians have to work harder to ensure that they see even a modest bump in pay.

But for the first time, MGMA, which represents mostly small group practices, declares this trend as an "unsustainable course" for primary care physicians. And it says specialists will be immediately on the same course if Congress fails to fix a scheduled 5.1% cut in Medicare payments.

William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of MGMA, said the organization's concern is that "primary care physicians are in the unique position of running faster to stay in place."

MGMA's survey found median compensation for primary care doctors increased 3.9%, from $161,816 in 2004 to $168,111 in 2005, while median gross charges rose 6.8%, from $470,901 to $502,746. From 2001 to 2005, data show that productivity grew 20.4%while median compensation increased 12.9%.

Some physician leaders have compared primary care and its place in medicine to a backbone with osteoporosis. "This study shows it's now got compression fractures and developing kyphosis," said Rick Kellerman, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.