Physician Recruitment Today

This has been an interesting few years for physician recruitment. Of course we are constantly hearing of the physician shortage, but with the current economy and health care reform it has added a complicated factor in to recruiting physicians today.

The New England Journal of Medicine has published an article referencing 3 key findings to recruit and retain physicians.

To summarize the recommendations of the article, the NEJM suggests these 3 points to recruit and retain physicians:

• Offer compensation models competitive to today's physician: take in to consideration competitive compensation but also other factors that entice physicians such as quality of life, shared call, paid CMEs and malpractice, bonuses, etc.
• Offer leadership and/ or ownership potential
• Be competitive in offers regardless of the economic situation

The current physician shortage across not only primary care but all specialties will only increase. Retaining and recruiting physicians will become more competitive than ever, top candidates will be more enticed with competitive offers than they are today. However, as the needs of physicians change, hospital groups, private practices, and even academic facilities need to evolve to attract physicians in a changing marketplace with new employment preferences.

Read the full article in the New England Journal of Medicine, or click here:
http://www.nejmjobs.org/rpt/intentional-retention-starts-with-recruitment.aspx

Check List: Job Offer Incentives for Physician Candidates

During the negotiation process there are many factors to consider outside of salary/ compensation alone. There are many other considerations physicians can leverage during contract negotiations.

We found a good check-list from Med Center today; although this article is geared toward academic physicians, the same considerations can be applied to candidates considering hospital employed and even private practice opportunities.

Here are some suggestions the article recommends to discuss during employment contract negotiations:

• Moving Expenses
• Sign-on Bonuses
• Guaranteed minimum salary
• Contract terms
• Loan re-payment assistance
• Relocation Assistance

Many of the other suggestions are geared specifically towards physicians seeking careers with academic facilities. However candidates seeking all models of employment can also negotiate call, paid time off, paid expenses (licensing, training, CME, etc.), and many other factors outside of compensation contributing to the physician's total quality of life.

Read the full article in Med Center Today, or click here:

http://www.medcentertoday.com/checklist.php?id=66

Physician Employment: Leveraging Benefits with Hospitals

Hospitals have become very creative and flexible on how they are able to attract new physicians and also consider merging with current physician groups. If physicians are able to negotiate during the offer process they are often able to get the practice set-up and other benefits they want.

Not only are physicians able to negotiate for hospital employed positions, but hospitals can also be flexible with joint ventures, non-profit physician networks, and making EMS and other software available to community physicians at a discounted rate.

Other terms physicians can negotiate, particularly for hospital employment opportunities, are flexible schedules and workloads, benefits, paid CMEs and other continued training, vacation and paid time off, and call schedules.

Read the full article in American Medical News, or click here:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/11/15/bisa1115.htm

MGMA Annual Conference: Outlook Pending Healthcare Reform

The Medical Group Management Association has had their annual conference in New Orleans. Many of the speakers indicated healthcare reform has left a pending synopsis of the state of healthcare.

Throughout this year healthcare providers have seen many changes to current regulations as well as new implementations. Exactly what will happen when healthcare reform takes place is also undetermined.

According to speakers at the conference, there are 3 payment models to watch:

• Accountable care organizations

• Bundling of payments

• Value-based payment modifiers

Many sessions focused on general reform objectives – how to control spending, improve access, create incentives and enhance quality.

Read the full article at Healthcare Finance News, or click here: http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/mgmas-outlook-still-waiting-reform

Private Practices: How to Survive and Thrive

With the changes in healthcare, IT, and government there has been a lot of press on the deterioration of the private practice; however in this environment as well as in the future private and small physician practices can still be very successful and fulfilling.

The key is for small practices to identify and acquire the tools needed to adapt and grow in changing times. Medscape Today has provided 3 actions small physician practices can take to help survive and thrive even though the rules of the game are about to change:

• Hire an NP or PA
• Adopt an EHR
• Get a Real Website

Private Physician practices can still be rewarding, both financially and in career fulfillment. If practices are run correctly with good administration and technology they will always be a competitive contender in the medical marketplace.

Read the full article in Medscape Today, or click here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/730497

Hospitals Lure Doctors Away From Private Practice

According to MGMA, in 2009 approximately 50% of new physicians hired were hired by hospitals. Currently, 1 out of every 6 physicians work directly for a hospital, and there is a significant increase in the percentage of physicians choosing hospital based positions.

Hospitals are more prepared to entice physicians to hospital employment models because of their business strategies. Hospitals project hiring more physicians as employees guarantees a more steady stream of patient referrals and improves patient care through better coordination of services.

Physicians, particularly young physicians out of training, are preferring hospital based and hospital employed positions because of the added security and benefit packages along with the better quality of life hospital practices tend to offer, call shared amongst several other physicians as well as not worrying about the time and expenses associated with a private practice such as leases, hiring administrative and medical staff, and billing.

Hospitals are being more competitive in their offers with not only salary options but also RVU (production) based incentives allowing physicians to be in better control of their income based on how much they wish to work.

One concern experts have is employing more physicians could give hospitals more negotiating power with health insurers, thus driving up health insurance prices.

Read the full article in Physicians News Digest, or click here:

http://www.physiciansnews.com/2010/10/14/hospitals-lure-doctors-away-from-private-practice/

Physician Shortage Increasing

The physician shortage continues to increase, with certain states affected more significantly by the current and impending shortage. According to the American Medical Association, the nationwide physician shortage is expected to reach as many as 159,000 physicians by 2025. At least 22 states and 15 medical specialties had reported physician shortages as of June this year.

Virginia is one of the states dramatically affected by the current shortage, mainly because of an increase in demands for specialty services for the aging population as well as coverage for the uninsured with healthcare reform.

According to the Association of American Medical College, Virginia ranks 31st nationally in retaining graduates, 61% of residents go to other states after completing their training.

Nearly all US States are experiencing physician shortages, and with healthcare reform pending the shortages are predicted to increase dramatically. Rural areas in Virginia as well as all states are experiencing a harder time retaining and recruiting new physicians.

Read the full article in American Medical News, or click here:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/10/04/prse1005.htm

Incentive Plans Playing Bigger Role in Physician Earnings

Many hospital employed opportunities as well as private practice salaries or shared earnings in partnerships are becoming more affected by incentive plans. RVU based incentives based on the individual physician's volume and revenue have played a part in physician compensation for awhile both in private practice opportunities and hospital employment positions, however now other incentive plans are also gaining popularity.

Particularly amongst hospital employment positions physicians are being compensated based on patient satisfaction, readmissions, clinical outcomes, and other performance metrics.

The Hay Group's "2010 Physician Compensation: Prevalence and Planning Report" found that 69% of the health care organizations surveyed used some kind of annual incentive plan in 2010 for employed physicians, which is up from 2008 which reported 49% of health care organizations based some physician compensation on annual incentives.

Physician's income, particularly in hospital employment positions, has become more of a base salary model with these types of incentives rewarded on top of base salaries.

Read the full article in American Medical News, or click here:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/10/04/bise1004.htm

MGMA: Increase in RVU from Last Year

The results from MGMA’s “Cost Survey for Multispecialty Practices: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data” have been released and it looks as if RVUs have experienced a slight increase from last year's data.

Over the last 5 years an almost 1% increase has been experienced by non-hospital/ IDS-owned medical groups in total RVUs, and almost 13% increase in work RVUs per patient.

Multi-specialty groups (hospital/IDS-owned) had slightly different results with just under 6% decrease in total RVUs and almost an 18% decrease in work RVUs per patient.

The report also provided specialty specific information. Family practice, Anesthesia and Orthopedic Surgery reported increases in total medical revenue after operating costs, while Cardiology, Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, and Urology reported decreases in the same category.

Over the last 10 years the study reports the average total operating costs as a percentage of total medical revenue increased over 3% for practices non-hospital/ IDS owned. Hospital/ IDS-owned practices' average total operating costs decreased almost by 1%.

Read the full article in Healthcare Finance News, or click here:

http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/mgma-productivity-costs-and-revenue-affect-practice-ownership

The Changing Face of Academic Medicine

In an article from Med Center Today, Academic Medicine has been dominated by males across all specialties, however more women are entering in to the academic medicine setting. Women entering in to a male dominated territory run across obstacles in addition to the normal competitive nature of jobs in academic medicine.

It will take a combination of top-level leadership and females taking stronger rein over their own career development to help women find their place in academic medicine. Academic institutions are already competitive, although women may be a minority it is important for these programs to become more diverse and create more women mentors for new students entering training.

According to the AAMC, as of 2003, women represented 50% of first-year medical students, 41% of all residents and 30% of all faculty members. However there is a significant shortage of women in leadership roles in academic centers.

There is also an interesting article from JNS documenting women in and entering in to Neurosurgery. Read the full article by clicking here: http://thejns.org/doi/full/10.3171/JNS/2008/109/9/0378. Neurosurgery, like most surgery and specialties, is also largely dominated by men. However more women Neurosurgeons are entering in to the marketplace which creates more women mentors for new medical students selecting their specialties and even deciding to enter in to medical school.

Given the complexity of the challenge, medical schools are implementing a number of initiatives to raise the profile of women, including extending the timeline for gaining tenure and advancing to full professorship, and exploring policies for part-time faculty. There also are a number of steps women can take to enhance their own careers and help build a climate that encourages other women to pursue and stay in academic medicine.


Read the full article in Med Center Today, or click here:
http://www.medcentertoday.com/article.php?id=55&chapter_id=16&PHPSESSID=o43oa6516ph8i36khum81tugv0