Physician pay rose across every specialty group in 2026, SullivanCotter survey finds

Median total cash compensation for physicians rose in every major specialty group from 2025 to 2026, led by a 7.2% increase for adult medical specialties, according to findings consulting firm SullivanCotter released Sept. 17 from its 2026 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey.

Adult surgical specialties posted the smallest pay increase, at 4.3%. Median work relative value units (wRVUs) rose 0.8% in primary care, the lowest of any specialty group, and 2.8% in adult medical specialties, the highest. Median compensation per wRVU rose between 1.4% and 2.9% across the seven groups.

The survey covers 575 health care organizations and about 235,000 physicians in 240 specialties, nearly 4,000 more physician records than the 2025 edition. SullivanCotter describes it as a benchmarking resource for health systems and hospitals, and its total cash compensation figures include base salary, incentive pay, bonuses and other cash payments but not benefits.

The full report, with benchmarks by specialty, region and position level, is available from SullivanCotter.

In the 2025 survey, adult medical specialties also led on both measures, with a 7.5% pay increase and a 3.0% gain in wRVUs. SullivanCotter puts the group's cumulative pay gain at 25.2% over five years.

Primary care physicians' median pay rose 4.6% in 2026 after a 4.1% increase in 2025. Their median wRVUs rose 0.8% in 2026 and 0.2% in 2025, and their five-year pay gain, by SullivanCotter's count, was 22.5%.

Which specialties saw the biggest raises?

Among specialties with samples large enough to compare year over year, rheumatology posted the largest one-year increase in median pay, at 10.4%. Child and adolescent psychiatry rose 9.7%, as did family medicine with obstetrics. Infectious disease followed at 9.6%.

SullivanCotter flagged six specialties for ranking among the largest increases both in the past year and over three years: infectious disease, maternal and fetal medicine, general cardiology, endocrinology and metabolism, hematology and oncology, and general pulmonology. In slides summarizing the findings, the firm said sustained increases like these point to growing demand for chronic disease care.

Among specialties with at least 200 physicians reporting productivity data, infectious disease posted the largest wRVU increase, at 11.1%. SullivanCotter's slides said those gains likely reflect sustained patient volume following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anesthesiology and radiology pay is up 12% to 18% since 2024

Pay in general, cardiac and pediatric anesthesiology has risen 14% to 16% since 2024, according to SullivanCotter, while pay for certified registered nurse anesthetists has risen almost 12%. Pay in diagnostic, interventional and mammography radiology rose 12% to 18% over the same period.

SullivanCotter said that growth has shifted employment models in both fields and driven consolidation among private practice groups whose reimbursement has not kept pace with the pay new recruits demand.

What are employers offering recruits?

"Nearly 65% of survey participants plan to increase the size of their physician workforce in the next year," Ted Tackett, a principal at SullivanCotter, said in a statement. "These organizations are caught between forces pulling in opposite directions: pressure to keep pace on compensation, while recruits are increasingly prioritizing flexibility. Recruitment incentives that used to be reserved for hard-to-fill specialties are now standard practice almost everywhere."

The share of physicians receiving sign-on bonuses reached nearly 95% in 2026, and 49% of responding organizations offer student loan repayment programs, according to the survey. SullivanCotter said that for many new physicians, financial security and work-life balance outweigh the risks and variability of incentive-focused pay models.

55% of organizations now tie incentive pay to clinical outcomes

Base salary and wRVU productivity remain the most common components of compensation plans for primary care, medical and surgical specialties, according to the survey. For incentive pay, individual productivity and patient experience were the most common measures, each used by 73% of responding organizations. Clinical outcome measures, used by 55%, posted the largest increase from 2025, extending a multiyear climb.

SullivanCotter said rising pay and continued market pressure to reduce annual work effort expectations have many organizations evaluating the design of their compensation programs.

"As physician shortages persist and the implementation of AI tools alters care delivery, health care organizations must have agile compensation and care model strategies," Courtney Dutton, managing director and clinical workforce services leader at SullivanCotter, said in a statement.

Medicare's 2027 proposal would lower the conversion factor

The 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule raised the conversion factor 3.26% for most physicians and 3.77% for qualifying participants in advanced alternative payment models. A 2.5% efficiency adjustment in the same rule cut the wRVU values assigned to most non-time-based services, while time-based services such as evaluation and management (E/M) visits were exempt. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to apply the adjustment every three years. SullivanCotter said it offset much of the conversion factor increase.

For 2027, CMS has proposed cutting the conversion factor 1.68% for most physicians and 1.19% for qualifying alternative payment model participants, as the one-time 2.5% increase Congress approved for 2026 expires.

In its slides, SullivanCotter said growth in both productivity and pay across several chronic-care specialties suggests the G2211 add-on code and rising demand are driving both. The 2027 proposed rule would replace G2211 with a modifier that raises payment for the associated E/M visit by 16%, rather than adding a flat amount.

Under the proposal, when a physician, or another physician in the same practice, furnishes a separately identifiable office E/M visit on the same day as a procedure with a 0-, 10- or 90-day global period, every service other than the most expensive would be paid at 50%. The rule would adopt new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that unbundle maternity care's global package, and CMS asked for public comment on alternatives to the American Medical Association's CPT coding system.

Comments on the proposal closed Sept. 14. CMS typically releases the final rule around Nov. 1.