PCPs had ‘modest’ compensation increase in 2020
Primary care providers’ compensation increased by 2.6% from 2019 to 2020, according to a recent report from the Medical Group Management Association.
“Our numbers tell a story of a year of unprecedented challenges that could have potentially led to a serious decline in compensation across every category we track,” Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, the president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, said in a press release. “Practices acted quickly to leverage government programs to cover staff costs and expenses during the early part of 2020.”
The data were derived from more than 185,000 providers of multiple specialties who worked at more than 6,700 organizations, the report said. Primary care providers had a “modest” compensation increase of 2.6% from 2019 to 2020. The annual change in compensation from 2018 to 2020 was 5.27%. Primary care providers also had a 5-year cumulative increase of 10.15%, according to the press release.
The median compensation increase from 2019 to 2020 was 3.94% for family medicine providers, 0.14% for hospitalist internal medicine providers, 2.73% for general internal medicine providers and 0.35% for obstetrics or gynecology providers, according to the report.
Healio previously reported on the loss of compensation among primary care providers in 2020. According to the press release, the Paycheck Protection Program and Provider Relief Fund, as well as other governmental support and increasing patient volumes in the second half of the year, “stabilized” compensation. Regarding patient volume, primary care providers who worked in physician-owned practices had 3,243 encounters vs. 2,653 encounters for those who worked at hospital or integrated delivery system-owned practices.
“It is a testament to the resiliency of physician groups that weathering the challenges of a year that tested us all in so many ways,” Fischer-Wright said.
References:
- MGMA. Data Report: Provider Pay and the Pandemic. Available at: https://www.mgma.com/resources/financial-management/data-report-provider-pay-and-the-pandemic. Accessed June 1, 2021.
- MGMA. Physician Compensation Flattens due to the Pandemic’s Impact on Medical Groups. Available at: https://www.mgma.com/news-insights/press/physician-compensation-flattens-due-to-the-pandemi. Accessed June 1, 2021.