MD Ranger released its physician compensation benchmarks covering hospital payment to physicians for various services, including call coverage, leadership and telemedicine.
Here are seven things to know.
1. Hospitals are paying more for hospital-based physicians than emergency department call coverage.
2. Hospital payments for physician services, not including physician salaries, increased from $7.2 million in 2017 to $8.3 million in 2018.
3. Hospital-based physician contracts continue to grow in size and scope as they provide monetary support for more specialty hospitalist teams including orthopedics and acute care surgery.
4. More than half, 60 percent, of the 51 call coverage median benchmarks were up more than 5 percent while 7 percent of the benchmarks were lower.
5. For medical directors, 33 percent of the median rates declined while 44 percent were unchanged.
6. Around one-third of the hospital-based service benchmarks declined while the remaining two-thirds rose.
7. Stroke center accreditation standards are becoming more common, which drives cost of coverage for neuro-interventional, interventional radiology and stroke leadership positions.
"As hospitals align more closely with physicians, expenditures for call coverage, leadership positions, medical directorships, hospitalists and committee/meeting attendance continue to grow in scope and amount," said MD Ranger Founder and CEO Penny Stroud. "The trend reflects a number of factors, including more hospital-based service contracts, deteriorating payment rates from government and other insurers and growing reluctance by physicians to participate in hospital activities without compensation."