Non-academic hospital physicians earn more than their academic counterparts: 5 things to know

Non-academic hospital system physicians earn up to $123,000 more per year than their academic counterparts, according to a report conducted by the Medical Group Management Association.

The report, titled "2017 MGMA DataDive Physician Compensation and Production Survey," presents comparative data of more than 120,000 providers across a variety of practice types, including physician-owned, hospital-owned, academic practices as well as other smaller practices. The academic subset consisted of data from more than 17,400 providers across 437 organizations. The non-academic subset had data from more than 96,000 providers across 5,000 organizations.

Here are five insights from the report.

1. The greatest compensation difference was between non-academic and academic specialty physicians. Full-time, non-academic specialty physicians earned $122,795 more, on average, than full-time, fully-clinical academic specialty physicians. 

2. Primary care physicians at non-academic hospitals earned $57,129 more than their academic counterpart on average.

3. Starting salaries for physicians in non-academic settings across the board were higher than starting salaries for physicians in academic settings.

4. Non-academic primary care physicians in their first year post-residency, in some cases, earned upwards of $86,000 more than primary care physicians in academic settings.

5. Specialty care physicians who are full-time, fully clinical reported earning a base compensation $67,290 more than physicians who dedicated 67 percent or more of their time to research. 

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