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Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017
| Contributor Information
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Emergency medicine (EM) physicians who responded to this year's Medscape compensation survey disclosed their compensation, number of hours they work weekly, their major rewards and challenges, and more. (Note: Chart values have been rounded and may differ from the sums cited in the captions.)
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Survey respondents were asked to provide their annual compensation for patient care. For employed physicians, this includes salary, bonus, and profit-sharing contributions. For partners, it includes earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses before income tax. EM physicians ranked above the middle this year at $339,000. Orthopedists were the highest earners this year at $489,000, and pediatricians the lowest at $202,000.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Compensation for cardiologists and oncologists has not changed since the 2016 survey. Pediatricians were the only specialists who reported a decrease this year, of 1%. All other survey respondents reported an increase, including EM physicians (5%), with plastic surgeons' and allergists' gains the largest at 24% and 16%, respectively.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Average compensation for US-trained EM physicians ($340,000) exceeds that of their foreign-trained peers ($330,000) by 3%. The average among all US-trained physicians surveyed is $301,000, second highest following those trained in Canada ($328,000).
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Among EM physicians, there is a wide gap in gender participation, which may have some association with race. More men than women of all races responded to the survey, but there are nearly equal percentages of black/African American male (51%) and female (49%) EM physicians. The gap widens among Asian (68% vs 32%), white/Caucasian (79% vs 21%), and Hispanic/Latino (82% vs 18%) respondents.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year, the highest average compensation was reported by EM physicians in the South Central ($395,000), North Central ($381,000), and Southeast ($354,000) regions, while the lowest was found in the West ($311,000), the Northwest ($312,000), and the Mid-Atlantic ($313,000).
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Physicians who are employed earn less than those who are self-employed, trading in a higher salary for less time spent dealing with administrative and business issues. Self-employed EM physicians earn 23% more than their employed peers ($387,000 vs $314,000).
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year, as in all previous years' reports, full-time male EM physicians reported higher earnings than their female counterparts. Men earned $349,000, 15% more than women, who earned $303,000.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
High percentages of EM physicians this year say they receive liability coverage (75%) and employer-subsidized health insurance (62%). In addition, 54% get employer-subsidized dental insurance and 46% have employee-matched retirement plans. Fourteen percent reported that they receive no benefits.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year, among all physicians, nearly one quarter (22%) of women and 10% of men reported that they work part-time (less than 40 hours per week). Among EM physicians, slightly higher percentages of both women (26%) and men (17%) surveyed work part-time.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Emergency medicine physicians, at 68%, were most likely among all physicians to report that they do feel fairly compensated. At the bottom of the list, just 41% of nephrologists reported that they feel their compensation is fair, followed in dissatisfaction by endocrinologists (44%).
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year, in addition to asking respondents if they are satisfied with their compensation, the Medscape survey asked those who were not satisfied how large an increase they feel they deserve. Forty-six percent of EM physicians believe they deserve to be earning between 11% and 25% more, while 10% believe their current income should be increased by over 75%.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
EM physicians' participation this year in accountable care organizations (ACOs), at 23%, has not changed much from 2016 (22%), and 2% had concierge or cash-only practices. Nearly half (45%) of EM physician respondents reported that none of the payment models listed apply to them.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), also known as the permanent "Doc Fix," went into effect on January 1, 2017. This year's Medscape survey asked EM physicians if they expect to participate, and at 43%, they were in the lower half among physicians most likely to answer affirmatively.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
In this year's survey, when EM physicians were asked whether they would drop insurers that pay poorly, 5% said they would and 31% said they would not. (The question was, unsurprisingly, not applicable to 64% of EM physician respondents.)
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Well over one half (58%) of EM physicians reported that they have seen an influx of new patients over the past year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, compared with 55% in 2016.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Most EM physicians (58%) surveyed said they will continue to take new and treat current Medicare and Medicaid patients. Only 1% indicated that they intend to stop taking new patients or drop current patients who are recipients. Two percent said they have not yet decided.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year has seen a notable increase in the percentage of all Medscape survey respondents who say they are participating in healthcare exchanges, up to 37% from 19% in 2016. Among EM physicians, 26% said they plan to participate in the exchanges, up from just 16% last year, while 24% do not plan to participate, down from 35%. Nearly half (49%) of respondents remain unsure.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Among EM physicians, 44% reported no change in income due to health insurance exchanges, 7% said their income had increased, and 10% said that it had decreased. More than one third (39%) of EM physician respondents did not participate in an exchange.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
This year, 63% of EM physicians surveyed said they either regularly or occasionally discuss the cost of treatment with patients. Twenty percent of EM physicians reported that they do so regularly and 43% said they do so occasionally.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
When we asked EM physicians whether they charge patients for appointments missed without notice, 20% of respondents in multispecialty group practices said they do compared with 7% of those in single-specialty groups.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Most (80%) EM physicians surveyed spend 45 hours per week or less with patients, about the same as last year (80%).
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Most EM physicians who responded this year (62%) spend 12 minutes or less with each patient. The remaining 38% spend between 13 and 24 minutes, and none spend 25 minutes or longer. (Note: This slide applies to office-based physicians only.)
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
According to this year's Medscape Lifestyle Report, bureaucratic tasks remain the primary cause of burnout among physicians. More than half (56%) of all physicians surveyed spend 10 hours or more per week on paperwork and administration, up from 35% in the 2014 report. Well below the overall rate, 40% of the EM physicians polled devote 10 hours or more to such tasks each week.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Nearly two thirds (64%) of EM physicians who are employed indicated that they are not seeking a promotion.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Gender does not appear to play a major role in whether EM physicians seek promotion. The gap between men and women who answered affirmatively is 10%, with a lower percentage of men (34%) than women (43%) saying they are seeking promotion.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
In this year's survey, just over a third (34%) of EM physicians named being good at what they do and doing it well as the most rewarding aspect of their jobs. Following were making good money at a job they like (24%) and relationships with and gratitude from patients (15%). A far lower percentage cited pride in their profession (7%), but only 4% said they find nothing rewarding about their jobs.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
In addition to asking what EM physicians find most rewarding, we asked what they find most challenging about their jobs. The highest percentages named dealing with difficult patients and having so many rules and regulations (both at 26%). Worrying about lawsuits followed at 16%, followed closely at 15% by having to work with an electronic health record (EHR) system.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
When asked this year whether they would still choose medicine if they had to do it over again, 77% of EM physicians answered affirmatively, ranking them just below the middle among all physicians.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Of those who would choose medicine again, EM physicians rank near the bottom, though 78% would also choose their own specialty again.
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
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Medscape EM Physician Compensation Report 2017
Sarah Grisham | April 12, 2017 | Contributor Information
Nearly 19,200 physicians in over 26 specialties described their income, career satisfaction, hours worked, and whether they'd go into medicine again.Medscape Features Slideshows, April 2016
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Contributor Information
Sarah Grisham
Senior Editor, Editorial Services
Art Science Code LLC
New York, New York
Disclosure: Sarah Grisham has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
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