Median compensation for primary care doctors increased by 3.89% in 2005 compared with an increase of 3.13% in 2004, according to the Medical Group Management Association’s 2006 Physician Compensation and Production Survey. Specialists’ compensation was up 6.61%, although urologists experienced flat compensation and pulmonary medicine physicians and neurologists reported modest compensation increases of 1.58% and 2.42%, respectively.
The report also indicates that physicians have increased their patient volumes to realize compensation increases that barely keep up with inflation. Primary care physicians reported a 6.76% increase in production (gross charges) in 2005, with pediatricians increasing their production by nearly 11% Specialists reported similar production increases--6.54% overall--with anesthesiologists and emergency medicine physicians reporting increases in production of 18.78% and 17.46% respectively. Read the press release.
