Primary care pay increases outpaced other specialties in 2022
Primary care providers’ compensation increases significantly outpaced those of other physician specialties in 2022, growing by 6.1% for the calendar year.
In comparison, other medical and surgical specialties saw 1.5% and 1.6% increases, according to new data from AMGA Consulting’s 36th annual 2023 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey. The report, which includes data from 446 medical groups, representing over 193,000 providers, indicates that primary care also saw more substantial increases in work relative value units (wRVUs) than other specialties.
AMGA Consulting Director Elizabeth Siemsen suggests that these increases could be attributed to prior coding changes initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
“We’re seeing that the compensation levels for primary care have increased this past year, greater than in other specialty types, which in our opinion, is evidence that the E/M coding changes that CMS put into effect in 2021 are now being reflected in organizations’ compensation plans,” said Siemsen. “Survey results indicate that the gains for primary care are evident as the smoke clears from the slow transition to the utilization of new wRVU weights for compensation calculation and the volume swings of the pandemic.”
Across all primary care specialists (family medicine, internal medicine and pediatric and adolescent providers), wRVUs increased by an average of 4% in 2022. In comparison, other medical specialists (cardiologists, gastroenterologists, hematologists/oncologists and neurologists) saw an increase of 1.7%, while surgical specialties (OB/GYN, emergency medicine, general surgery and orthopedic surgery) had an average increase of 1.4% in 2022, according to the data.
Despite this, compensation per wRVU percentages have not yet returned to levels seen prior to the pandemic. For example, these percentages increased an average of 2.8% from 2016 to 2019 but rose just 0.3% overall between 2021 and 2022. AMGA indicates that this could be due to the 2021 wRVU changes being more fully implemented in 2022 compared to the year prior.
The survey also revealed that medical groups’ median net collections increased by 5.2% for the year. That figure is higher than in previous years and outpaces the average compensation increases seen in 2022. AMGA Consulting President Fred Horton noted that this figure suggests that medical groups’ revenue is not being allocated directly to providers but is being used to address other rising expenses.
“A lower compensation-to-collections ratio suggests that a higher percentage of revenue is going to cover all the expenses that have seen an increase in the past few years,” Horton said. “These include staff expense, supply expense, and the like. Basically, we see that this data reflects that organizations are focusing on the management of the changing financial demands for medical group operations.”
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.