Published in MGMA Connection, January 2020
Dr. Smith is a neurosurgeon and is negotiating the compensation terms of her employment agreement. She performs many services that she wishes to be considered in her total compensation. As her employer, you know that you have various terms you can use to structure her compensation and want to use them to align the physician’s desire with the organization’s patient care mission, financial solvency, and operational strategy. In doing so:
- How should Dr. Smith be compensated: base guarantee versus production bonus?
- What services should she be compensated for: clinical, research, advanced practice supervision, etc.?
- When or in what context is it acceptable to pay her the sum of multiple earnings streams?
Whether you are a practice administrator, compliance officer or healthcare lawyer, these are questions that arise for each physician agreement. The key is to arrive at a financially sound and legally compliant answer, while incentivizing each physician to provide quality care to patients.1 The compensation agreement should stand the test of regulatory scrutiny while being neither too low as to only attract few quality physicians nor too high to be financially sustainable.2 Here are some considerations to meet these goals when structuring the physician’s compensation terms.
Read more here to explore some considerations to meet these goals when structuring the physician’s compensation terms.
By Joe Aguilar, MBA, MPH, MSN, CVA
Joe Aguilar is a Partner with HMS Valuation Partners in Atlanta, GA
