The most lucrative medical group leadership position is a physician executive role at a large physician-owned practice in the Midwest, according to trends from a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association.
Based on 2015 data from more than 67,000 managers and staff, MGMA was able to note several trends in medical group management compensation. Here are four highlights from the survey.
1. Non-physician executives and administrators earn more in hospital-owned practice settings, while physician executives earn more in physician-owned practices. Here is the breakdown.
|
Hospital-owned practice median annual compensation |
Physician-owned practice median annual compensation |
|
|
Non-physician CEO |
$305,000 |
$242,000 |
|
Administrator |
$141,000 |
$100,600 |
|
Physician executive |
$300,000 |
$350,000 |
2. Practice CEO and executive director paychecks grow with practice size. MGMA data shows CEOs and executive directors at medical practices with 25 or fewer employees earned median annual compensation of $181,000 in 2015, while those with 26-50 employees earned $252,000 and those at practices with 151 full-time employees or more earned $430,000 that same year.
3. CEOs and executive directors of physician practices earn most in the Midwest. Leaders at larger practices in the Midwest earned median annual compensation of more than $447,500 in 2015, while those at practices with 25 or fewer full time employees earned less than $234,000. Also of note, executives earn less than their peers at similarly sized practices when they work at large practices in the East and small practices in the South, according to MGMA.
4. Executives earn bigger bonuses and incentives at hospital-owned practices. For physician executives, median bonuses at hospital-owned practices in 2015 were nearly $70,000, while non-physician executives earned median bonuses of $24,000. At physician-owned practices, physician executives earned median bonuses of $36,000, while non-physician executives earned $10,000 bonus and incentive packages in 2015.
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