Abstract
This survey study uses data from the Medical Group Management Association’s voluntary physician compensation survey from 2008 to 2017 to examine trends in compensation for primary care and specialist physicians after passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Highlights
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed, physicians were unsure how their salaries would be affected
To examine trends in physician compensation since the passage of the ACA, we calculated the inflation-adjusted change in physician compensation from 2008 to 2017 using the voluntary physician compensation survey conducted by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), which represents more than 20 000 physicians from private practices, hospitals, academic departments, and other organizations.[2]
From 2008 to 2017, specialist compensation increased by a weighted mean (SD) of 0.6% (1.2%) per year, from $378 600 to $399 300, whereas primary care compensation increased by 1.6% (2.2%) per year, from $214 100 to $247 300 (Figure)
Summary
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed, physicians were unsure how their salaries would be affected. Since the implementation of the ACA, numerous factors may have affected physician compensation, including increased emphasis on alternative payment models and discounted insurance payments from health exchanges. The ACA included 2 temporary fee increases for primary care physicians (PCPs): the 2013-2014 “Medicaid fee bump” and the 20112015 Primary Care Incentive Program.[1] Given these factors and the 10th anniversary of the ACA, we sought to answer the following 2 concerns: (1) how overall physician compensation has changed and (2) how PCP compensation has changed relative to specialist compensation since the ACA was passed. Author affiliations and article information are listed at the end of this article
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