Financial models developed by The Lewin Group also show that modifications to the current fee-for-service reimbursement system, such as payments for e-mail consultations, chronic disease management and the introduction of quality-based physician incentive bonus payments, could lead to further improvements in compensation for family physicians practicing the New Model of care. The authors further posit that the adoption of a mixed reimbursement model, which would add an annual per-patient fee, a chronic care bonus, and an overall performance bonus to the current reimbursement system, could increase total annual compensation by 66 percent over current compensation levels.
"Today's family physicians are caught in a productivity squeeze," explained Fleming. "They are working harder, putting in longer hours, and their overhead keeps going up. Increasing expenses and declining reimbursements are forcing many primary care physicians out of practice."
The year 2003 was the third consecutive year that increases in production outpaced increases in compensation, according to the Medical Group Management Association's 2004 Physician Compensation and Production Survey. Median compensation for family physicians increased 3.7 percent, from $148,992 in 2002 to $154,463 in 2003, while median gross charges, or the total amount billed, increased 11.6 percent, from $439,068 to $489,913, according to the 2004 Medical Group Compensation & Financial Survey. The widening gap between compensation and charges illustrates how much harder family physicians are working for their reimbursement.
"The trends are disturbing. We're going to need more, not fewer, primary care physicians in the future, yet the current disparities discourage medical students from choosing careers in primary care. We must take immediate steps to assure the fin
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Contact: Angela Lower
alower@aafp.org
913-906-6253
American Academy of Family Physicians
2-Dec-2004