90th annual Physician Report

The Medical Economics 90^th Annual Physician Report surveyed 1,300 physicians nationwide and provides benchmarks on compensation for primary care and many subspecialties. The report also examines trends in malpractice insurance, work-life balance, and technology utilization.

Just over half (52 percent) of physicians surveyed reported that compensation was about the same as last year, but income dropped for more than a quarter (26 percent) of respondents. 

More than 70 percent of physicians indicated uncompensated tasks, such as prior authorizations, were the primary cause of lost productivity and revenue. Other factors included:

• Higher overhead

• Lower reimbursement

• Greater technology costs

• Government regulations

• Difficulty collecting from patients

• Penalties for missed quality metrics

About 22 percent of physicians said their compensation increased. The primary reasons included:

• Seeing more patients

• Change in practice model

• Receiving pay-for-performance

• Renegotiated payer contracts

• Addition of ancillary services

Salary results are presented for physicians in private practice, hospital-owned practice, in-patient hospitals, nonprofits, and government. Specialties in this report include internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, obstetrics/gynecology, dermatology, and urology.

Data was collected November 2018, and the report has a 3 percent margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

90th annual Physician Report data slideshows:

• Financial state of practice: Uncompensated tasks stalling practice growth

• Salary: Salaries stagnant, declining for most doctors

• Malpractice: How much doctors spend on malpractice insurance

• Productivity and staffing: Despite challenges, doctors remain productive

• Respondent demographics: Who took our survey

Strategies and best practices:

• How to drive revenue growth in your medical practice

• How practice owners should set their own salaries 

• How to close the gender pay gap