Survey: Most Docs Recruited by Hospital-Owned Practices

Physicians are being successfully recruited by hospital-owned practices, thanks to higher starting salaries, according to a recent survey from the MGMA.

Sixty-five percent of established physicians and 49 percent of docs hired out of residency or fellowship were placed in hospital-owned practices in 2009, according to the survey. Those practices tend to offer higher first-year compensation. It’s another sign that physicians are concerned about their reimbursement and therefore seeking out hospital employment.

The median first-year guaranteed compensation for primary-care physicians in hospital-owned practices was $164,000 in 2009, compared with $150,000 for those in not hospital-owned practices.

The survey also found that primary-care first-year guaranteed salaries in single specialty practices have increased by 17.4 percent since 2006. (Specialists saw a slight decrease.) And in multispecialty practices, that first-year compensation for primary-care docs has increased by 14.3 percent.