ST. LOUIS, Aug. 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ECG Management Consultants, Inc., one of the nation's premier healthcare management consulting firms, today announced the release of its thirteenth annual Provider Compensation, Production, and Benefits Surveys.
ECG's surveys analyze and report information from more than 18,000 healthcare providers practicing within 120 organizations representing over 100 provider specialties and 7 advanced practice clinician (APC) specialties across the nation. The surveys contain critical provider performance benchmarks such as physician compensation and production, primary care panel size, CPT procedure code distributions, physician and APC benefit trends, and additional key performance metrics (e.g., work standards, recruiting/turnover rates by specialty, patient access). This information, coupled with ECG's interpretation of market trends, enables survey members to assess their performance relative to the competitive local market.
General findings in the 2012 surveys based on 2011 data are as follows:
- Compensation for primary care physicians increased by 1.6%, while specialists realized a 3.1% gain over 2011.
- Compensation relative to work RVU production for primary care physicians remained relatively flat at 0.7% greater than 2011 medians as a result of compensation gains of 1.5% on declining work RVU production of 0.4%.
- A majority of member organizations plan to modify existing physician compensation plans to incorporate nonproduction-based components as a strategy to succeed under healthcare reform. Patient satisfaction and quality are the most common components being considered for incorporation into revised compensation plans, as respectively reported by 31% and 35% of survey members.
- Retirement contributions averaged $15,349 per physician, while benefit costs overall represented 15.3% of compensation, or $39,105 per physician.
- Health system-employed groups continue to allocate significant funds to their physician entities of approximately $148,000 per physician per year, or 28% of collections.
- Of survey members responding, more than half are currently participating in a National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)-accredited patient-centered medical home pilot.
- Nearly half of member organizations are part of, or working toward developing, an accountable care organization (ACO), with a majority reporting that they are partnering with a health plan as part of this initiative.
"ECG's surveys, now in their thirteenth year, have become the most reliable and in-depth source for physician performance benchmarks and trends," said Ms. Maria C. Hayduk, Senior Manager at ECG and head of its Custom Surveys and Proprietary Research practice. "ECG is committed to continuing to grow and enhance our surveys for our clients. Our commitment is demonstrated by the introduction of ECGVault, our online benchmarking Web site made exclusively available to the 120 member organizations of the 2012 ECG provider compensation surveys."
"We are very pleased with the growth of our surveys and the investment we have made in ECGVault. This puts actionable data at the members' fingertips faster and more efficiently than ever before," stated Mr. James W. Lord, Principal and leader of ECG's Healthcare – Midwest practice. "This proprietary data also ensures the ability of our consultants to bring contemporary solutions to today's most complex healthcare issues.
Survey Methodology
ECG's surveys are developed in partnership with healthcare leaders and ECG's physician compensation and production experts. These experts go to extraordinary lengths to ensure data quality and validity. Raw survey data is reviewed by ECG's survey analysts, who identify outliers for verification by the surveys' members; if data cannot be validated, it is removed. At the conclusion of this process, ECG converts the raw data into succinct, proprietary information.
About ECG Management Consultants, Inc.
ECG offers a broad range of strategic, financial, operational, and technology-related consulting services to healthcare providers. ECG provides specialized expertise in developing and implementing innovative and customized solutions that effectively address hospital/physician relationships, strategic and business planning, specialty program development, information technology, and the complexities of the academic healthcare enterprise. ECG has offices in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.ecgmc.com.
Contact: Ms. Kathryn A. Sweyer
ECG Management Consultants, Inc.
ksweyer@ecgmc.com
Telephone: 206-689-2200
Fax: 206-689-2209
www.ecgmc.com
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