Anesthesiologists Stipend Highest of Hospital Based Services

MD Ranger released their 3rd annual Physician compensation report result data which they culled from more than 220 hospitals nationwide, and covers more than 90 physician services.

In the report Penny Stroud, CEO of MD Ranger, said, "Our new reports confirm that payments to physicians for call coverage, and medical direction continue to rise. With pressure on physicians to accept lower payments from Medicare and insurance companies, hospitals are facing tremendous pressure to pay physicians for the time they spend on a variety of non-clinical activities."

Of importance to the world of anesthesia was the finding that anesthesia continued to be the highest-paid hospital-based service, with an average stipend of $707,000 for comprehensive coverage of the service. The percentage of contracts that included incentive payments as a portion of compensation remained constant at 7 percent. In almost a third of these contracts, the incentive payment made up over half of all compensation for the service and nearly 20 percent of hospital-based services contracts included a provision for payment for care of patients without insurance.

Stipends for coverage remains 'low hanging fruit' in the economics of anesthesia. With expected average Anesthesiologist salaries in the mid 300's these stipends are often required to maintain them. Stipends are a cost center to a facility and there is evidence of further movement to decrease them. This has and will further encourage changing practice models which are both more cost effective and flexible. As we move toward the future stipends will likely decrease in many facilities leading to more CRNA heavy or CRNA only practices.