COMP NEWS – The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) has found that primary care physicians saw an average compensation increase of 6.1% between 2021 and 2022.

Medical groups and healthcare organizations reported a 6.1% increase in primary care compensation from 2021 to 2022, compared with increases of 1.5% and 1.6% for medical and surgical specialties, respectively, according to survey findings announced by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).

 

Primary care also had more significant increases in work relative value units (wRVUs) than other specialties, the 2023 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey showed.

 

“We’re seeing that the compensation levels for primary care have increased this past year, greater than in other specialty types, which in our opinion, is evidence that the E/M [evaluation and management] coding changes that CMS put into effect in 2021 are now being reflected in organizations’ compensation plans,” Elizabeth Siemsen, AMGA’s consulting director, said in a statement. “Survey results indicate that the gains for primary care are evident as the smoke clears from the slow transition to the utilization of new wRVU weights for compensation calculation and the volume swings of the pandemic.”

Within primary care categories, internal medicine had one of the largest compensation increases at an average of 6.4%.

Looking at specific primary care categories, internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics and adolescent-general care had increases in compensation of 6.4%, 6.1%, and 5%, respectively.

 

As for wRVUs, they increased 8.9% for pediatrics and adolescent-general care, 3.4% for family medicine, and 1.8% for internal medicine. And for primary care overall, there was a 4% increase.

 

Compensation per wRVU increased 2.6% for family medicine and 1.6% for internal medicine, and decreased 1.2% for pediatrics and adolescent-general care. For all primary care, there was a 1.5% increase.

 

Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), told MedPage Today in an email that the organization has “long advocated for a fair level of compensation that will sustain the primary care workforce required to meet the needs of an aging population with increasing levels of chronic conditions.”

 

“Given that more than 70% of family and other primary care physicians are employed, course correcting for decades of underinvestment in primary care requires both payers and employers to take decisive action,” Iroku-Malize said. “The AAFP is pleased to see indications that payers and employers of primary care physicians are listening.”

 

“These compensation improvements reflect long overdue investment in our primary care workforce and the AAFP will continue to advocate for family physicians to be fairly compensated for the comprehensive care they provide to patients across their lifespan,” she added.

To read more about primary care compensation increases, click here.

For more Comp News, see our recent posts.