News: 2021 physician compensation data shows promise for 2022

New data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) indicates that physician compensation has rebounded in most areas after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, physicians on average reported compensation levels in line with pre-pandemic data or higher, consistent with data from other reports. The 2022 MGMA Provider Compensation and Production report looked at 192,000 providers from 7,700 healthcare organizations and gave the following data.

The top compensation gains from 2019 to 2021 were reported by ophthalmology at 6.97%, general orthopedic surgery at 6.88%, and family medicine without obstetrics at 5.6%. Nonsurgical specialist physicians, who took the biggest hit in 2020, saw a 3.12% increase in median total compensation, 1.79% more than in 2019. Primary care physicians in 2021 saw figures slightly below their compensation gains in 2020, however.

MGMA also examined patient volume, including telehealth visits, and found a general increase from 2020 to 2021; however, the numbers are not back to pre-pandemic levels of total provider-to-patient encounters yet. Looking forward with this data at prospective 2022 levels, HealthLeaders spoke with Michelle Mattingly, senior manager of data solutions at MGMA, who said that 2021 data bodes well for 2022 but shows the pandemic is still having a negative impact on physician practices.

There are quite a few common hurdles for a practice’s productivity outside of the pandemic as well. Some that especially affect physician compensation are as follows:

• Short staffing, which can hinder a practice’s ability to handle higher patient volumes.
• Inflation, which prevents patients from being able to financially prioritize healthcare.
• Physician burnout, which was already a problem before the pandemic and now has been exacerbated by it.

Though this report indicates patients feel more comfortable getting care now than at the start of the pandemic, Mattingly noted that there are still many gaps to make up. “Primary care physicians had 2.69% more encounters in 2021 than 2020; however, the 2021 level was still 7.73% less than what it was in 2019. Likewise for surgical specialty physicians: encounters were 5.89% more in 2021 than 2020; however, the 2021 level was still 4.85% less than what it was in 2019,” she explained to HeathLeaders.

Editor’s Note: To read HealthLeaders’ coverage of this story, click here.