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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020
| Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Doctors' most critical concerns are those involving life and death. Still, while confronting this crisis, salary and income are important to one's career and livelihood.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
The health impact of COVID-19 has been grave, and the financial fallout is widespread.
Many physician offices have closed or have greatly reduced their hours. Hospitals, clinics, and large groups throughout the nation are laying off staff and cutting salaries. Specialties that relied upon elective procedures have lost much or most of their business. Those include, but are not limited to, orthopedics, plastic surgery, dermatology, cardiology, and ophthalmology.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
The data for this year's Compensation Report were collected prior to February 10, 2020, and reflect physician salary and income prior to the COVID-19 crisis. Physicians told us about their incentive bonuses, income, hours worked, greatest challenges, what gives them satisfaction, and more.
Survey respondents reported their compensation for patient care. For employed physicians, that includes salary, bonus, and profit-sharing contributions. For self-employed physicians, it includes earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses, before income tax. Only full-time salaries are included in our results. This report includes responses from more than 17,000 physicians in over 30 specialties.
Family medicine physicians are among the lowest earners of all physicians. Still, FM physician income is somewhat up from last year's average of $231,000.
(Note: Label values on charts have been rounded, but rankings and calculations are based on raw data to avoid rounding errors.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
More than half of physician respondents (56%) said they have an incentive bonus. FM physicians' average annual bonuses are lower than for all primary care physicians ($26,000). (Results are shown only for specialties where sample sizes are sufficient.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Fifty-four percent of FM physicians achieve more than three quarters of their potential annual incentive bonus. On average, FM physicians achieve around two thirds of their potential bonus, the same proportion as for physicians overall.
Michael Belkin, JD, divisional vice president at Merritt Hawkins, a national physician recruiting firm, said that most physicians don't earn their entire potential incentive bonus, partly due to the fact that employers are concerned with Stark Law prohibitions against self-referral and want to build in "safe harbor" provisions that protect them from possible penalty. As a result, they may cap the incentive that a physician can earn.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Close to one third of physicians overall who have incentive bonuses said the prospect of the bonus has encouraged them to work longer hours. Likewise for FM physicians, 32% said their potential incentive bonus influenced them to increase their work hours.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Male FM physicians earn about 26% more than their female peers. There is a 25% gender pay gap among all primary care physicians, the same as in last year's report. Among specialists, men earn 31% more than women, similar to last year's figure of 33%.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Among all physicians, the average time spent seeing patients is 37.9 hours per week.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
On average, FM physicians spend 15.9 hours per week on paperwork and administration, about the same as do physicians overall (15.6 hours). Intensivists top the list regarding such tasks, followed by internists, infectious disease physicians, and physiatrists. Ophthalmologists and anesthesiologists reported the least amount of time. (Results are shown only for specialties where sample sizes are sufficient.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
At 14%, FM physicians rank at the lower end of physicians potentially losing money on denied or resubmitted claims. One study found that, on average, 63% of denied claims are recoverable, but healthcare professionals spend about $118 per claim on appeals. (Results are shown only for specialties where sample sizes are sufficient.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Forty-three percent of FM physicians said they use physician assistants to treat patients, while 62% said they use nurse practitioners. Twenty-nine percent said they don't employ either role for patient care. (Respondents could select more than one answer.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Of FM physicians who work with PAs and NPs at their offices, half said they helped increase profitability, while 45% said these employees have had no effect on profitability. Physicians overall who use PAs and NPs were evenly split (47% each) on whether these employees have increased profitability or have had no effect on it.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Sixty-five percent of FM physicians have no plans to stop services to Medicare and Medicaid patients, somewhat less than the percentage of physicians overall (73%). (Respondents could select more than one answer.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
The majority of FM physicians rely on payers. Around 4 in 10 rely on fee-for-service and about one third on accountable care organizations for patient-based income. (Respondents could select more than one answer.)
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
A far larger percentage of FM physicians expect to participate in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System option of value-based care versus alternative payment models.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
About a quarter (27%) of physicians overall noted gratitude from and relationships with patients as the main factor for their career satisfaction. A somewhat higher percentage of FM physicians said that was their top reward.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
For FM physicians, having so many rules and regulations is the primary challenge when caring for patients. Working with the EHR system, dealing with difficult patients, and long work hours are also seen as contributors to a demanding profession.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Fifty-four percent of FM physicians said they felt fairly compensated, similar to last year's percentage (53%).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
If they could go back in time, 74% of FM physicians would still choose a career in medicine. This is about the same percentage as for physicians overall (77%).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
Of FM physicians who said they would choose medicine again, 70% said they would remain in the specialty—one of the lowest percentages among physicians overall.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Compensation Report 2020
Keith L. Martin | May 20, 2020 | Contributor Information
More than 17,000 physicians told us about their salary, incentive bonus, and denied claims, and how they feel about their career in medicine.Medscape Features Slideshow, May 2020
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Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.
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Keith L. Martin
Editorial Director, Medscape Business of Medicine
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References
MGMA. COVID-19 Financial Impact on Medical Practices. Source
Eldred SM. Firings, furloughs, and pay cuts in advance of COVID-19 surge. Medscape Medical News. March 31, 2020. Source
Sainato M. US for-profit healthcare sector cuts thousands of jobs as pandemic rages. The Guardian. April 14, 2020. Source
Kareo. Kareo survey reveals coronavirus pandemic impact on independent medical practices and their patients. April 6, 2020. Source
IQVIA. Monitoring the Impact of COVID-19 on the Pharmaceutical Market. April 17, 2020. Source
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