Physician Compensation Incentives Shifting

“In some local markets,” Anderson says, “there may be competition for physicians—including competitors’ poaching some of your employees. In the past, we’ve increased salaries in a substantive way due to local market conditions.”

Limbocker, Kaplan, and Anderson agree that as healthcare reform directives continue to unfold, and incentives and penalties from these mandates take hold, physician compensation models are likely to continue to morph.

“With all of the uncertainty in the current environment, how we compensate physicians is going to see a lot of change over the next several years. I’m not sure exactly what to predict, but we should all strive to be nimble and to create a culture that will be ready to adapt to whatever is thrown at us,”
says Anderson.

This article appears in the October 2011 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.