Physician Compensation: Employed vs. Practice Owners

Is there a huge gap between what employed physicians and physician practice owners bring in?Not at all, according to the annual Physicians Practice Physician Compensation Survey. This year's survey – broken into two parts (part two to be released next Monday) explored the differences in compensation between physician practice owners, employed physicians at a hospital or health system, and employed physicians at an independent practice.According to the survey, taken by 618 physicians across multiple specialties and employment models, 69.5 percent of physicians who own their practice bring home more than $200,000 in annual compensation. This compares to 75.3 percent of physicians employed by a hospital or health system and 60.7 percent of employed physicians at an independent practice. One negative for practice owners is nearly 8 percent bring home less than $100,000 income per year, whereas only 4.1 percent of hospital employed physicians or 3.6 percent of independent practice employed physicians can say the same.Employed vs. Independent: Doctors Speak OutHere are more highlights from this year's compensation survey:
• Not surprisingly, [practice owners were more likely to have non-guaranteed income. At least 19 percent of practice owner physicians say their income came from 100 percent non-guaranteed sources; only 6.8 percent of hospital-employed physicians and 5.2 percent of independent practice-employed physicians said the same. 
• Hospital-employed physicians and practice owners fell in line over compensation tied to productivity - 27.5 percent of practice owners said 100 percent of their compensation was tied to productivity vs. 27.4 percent of hospital employed physicians. Only 15.6 percent of independent practice employed physicians said this was the case for them.
• Most physicians - independent or employed - are only receiving a fraction of income due to patient satisfaction measures or value-based care. More coming next Monday (11/20th).