ST. LOUIS, Sept. 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ECG Management Consultants, Inc., one of the nation's premier healthcare management consulting firms, today announced the release of its sixth annual National Pediatric Subspecialty Physician Compensation, Production, and Benefits Survey.
ECG's pediatric survey is recognized as the leading industry source of provider compensation and production benchmarks in the pediatric subspecialty market. The pediatric survey analyzes and reports information from more than 3,800 pediatric subspecialist providers practicing in over 40 medical, surgical, and hospital-based pediatric subspecialties, with sample sizes that typically exceed those in other national industry surveys. The survey contains critical provider performance benchmarks such as physician and advanced practice clinician (APC) compensation and production, 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 survey based on 2011 data are as follows:
- Physician compensation increased by 5.5%, which represents the fourth straight year of overall compensation increases.
- Production-adjusted compensation increased slightly at 1.3% as a result of overall compensation gains and relatively flat work RVU production of 0.6%.
- The employer's cost of benefits continues to decline, averaging $37,528 per physician, or 17% of total compensation. Retirement contributions represent the largest proportion of benefit expenses, averaging $13,917 per physician.
- 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. Quality, patient satisfaction, and patient access are the most common components being considered for incorporation into revised compensation plans, with each component being reported by at least half of survey members.
- More than half of responding survey members participate in internal (organization-designed) or external (payor-designed) pay-for-performance programs. Additionally, 42% 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 43% reporting that they are partnering with a health plan as part of this initiative.
"Payments to children's hospitals and pediatric physicians from Medicaid programs are under increased pressure, and states are looking at new ways to manage care and costs," comments Mr. Kenneth A. Roorda, Principal and leader of ECG's Children's Hospital practice. "Alignment discussions among local and regional providers are principally driven by these financial pressures and the desire to demonstrate value-based care. Scarce pediatric subspecialty physicians and surgeons are typically at the forefront of those discussions. The availability of current, reliable physician practice benchmarks will be critical to decision making in this environment."
"ECG's pediatric survey, now in its sixth year, is the most referenced and relied-upon in-depth source for pediatric 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 long term to providing pediatric subspecialty benchmarks and conducting surveys for our clients. Our commitment is demonstrated by the development of ECGVault (www.ECGVault.com), 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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