Todd Evenson

The Medical Group Management Association says that that primary-care physician compensation is rising faster than other  specialists’. (Wed call a primary-care physicians a specialists in being generalists.)

Still,  those specialists earn nearly twice as much.

Primary-care physicians reported a median compensation of $241,273 in 2014, up 3.56 percent from 2013. Median compensation for other physicians  rose to $411,852, up  2.39 percent.

(The median household income in the U.S. is about $50,000.)

“The role of the primary-care physician continues to be a linchpin with the new healthcare models,” Todd Evenson, MGMA chief operating officer, told MedPage Today.  “Obviously hospitals are playing a role hiring at a brisk pace, strengthening their referral networks and trying to ensure that they can deliver on a quality-based model.”

“In 2012 our survey showed on average that 6.67 percent of compensation for primary-care physicians was based on quality measures. In 2014 that had already migrated to 10.83 percent  for primary care. On the specialty side, it was 4.6 percent in 2013 and 7.3 percent in 2014. This clearly indicates that the quality component is becoming a larger factor.”

In 2012 50 percent of  respondents said that their compensation was 100 percent productivity-based (i.e., “fee for service”). But in 2014 only 25 percent  of respondents said their pay was totally fee for service..”That shift is pretty sizable in terms of the composition of these compensation plans aligning with value measures, and reflects what is going on in these reimbursement models,”  Mr. Everson said.