Providers still making more despite flat productivity
Judging by work RVUs, U.S. physicians and other clinicians are getting decent raises every year without lifting their billable productivity enough to pay for it, AMGA’s latest survey suggests.
What’s more, this year’s findings show a stubbornly persistent divide between pay and productivity through several consecutive years, the organization points out in a press release.
In 2019, the new responses show, primary care providers across all subspecialties enjoyed median compensation some 4.46% higher than in 2018 while increasing their wRVUs just 0.44%.
Medical specialties earned 4.52% more on a bump of 0.93% in wRVUs.
And surgical specialties received median raises of 4.84% while increasing their wRVUs 1.95%.
Meanwhile nurse practitioners working in primary care banked 2.29% more in 2019 than in 2018 despite clocking a 0.35% decline in wRVUs.
These latest results come from 317 responding medical groups representing 127,000 providers.
“We have now seen this same trend of divergent key metrics for several years in a row, and we have to wonder how long it can continue, given that the vast majority of revenue is still, by and large, generated via work RVU productivity,” comments Fred Horton, MHA, president of AMGA’s consulting arm. “AMGA’s members are concerned about this ongoing trend, and we suspect the industry-wide response to COVID-19 will speed up efforts to mitigate this pattern.”
The organization is offering the full survey results as a purchase option, the target audience for which is medical employers interested in gauging the competitiveness of their clinician pay levels.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.