The future of physician compensation is in centralization, automation and analysis. Currently, the world of physician compensation is fragmented. Healthcare organizations have a difficult time collecting aggregate data because physician payments are handled through many different channels.
Physicians should understand how future changes in compensation will affect them and their contracts. As compensation becomes more and more centralized and controlled, physicians will need to ensure they complete contract reviews that assert their worth.
To learn more about best practices in physician compensation, and how it may affect physicians, read on.
Physician Compensation Centralization
Currently, healthcare organizations have many channels for different types of physicians. They may pay their payroll physicians on one channel while their locum and consulting physicians get paid on completely different channels.
The result is a whole lot of data spread around in many different places. By centralizing physician compensation, healthcare organizations can better understand their physician spend.
For payroll physicians, the centralization of compensation is probably good news and won’t affect you too much. For locum and consulting physicians, this may not be as net positive. While centralizing compensation is an excellent strategy for easy payments, it means that non-payroll physicians may lose their autonomy in how they are being compensated.
This is where the importance of contract negotiations comes in. Physicians should be sure to outline how they would like to be compensated in their contracts.
Automating Physician Payments
On average, healthcare organizations go through 8 to 12 steps before a physician’s time log is approved for payment. The automation of physician payments is necessary for all physicians. Automation will ensure that physicians are paid on time and that their information travels through fewer hands or cycles of bureaucracy.
There are many benefits for organizations and physicians when payments become automated:
Better Control of Administrative Payment Processes
When physician payments are automated, organizations have better control over the process. It is not uncommon for mistakes to occur during physician compensation. In fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s open payment database has to correct errors every year due to mistakes.
If you have ever experienced a mistake made on your payroll, then you can appreciate the value of automating your payments. When organizations have a better handle on the payment process, then you reap the benefits of straightforward and efficient compensation.
Enhanced control is also good news for healthcare organizations. The finance and accounting teams will have higher productivity rates. Any increase in accurate reporting will improve the bottom line.
Let’s Talk Track Record: Physician Payroll Data
As a physician, you appreciate when your employer knows what is happening with your compensation. Unfortunately, many employers have insufficient data to make mutually beneficial decisions. Add transient staffing to poor processes and it’s easy for administrators to lose track of what is going on.
With automated physician pay, organizations know the following and more:
- Which physicians are being paid
- What services those physicians are being paid for
- If the right physicians that should be paid
- If physician payments are correct and on-time
All of the above are important for organizations to understand, but they also benefit physicians. If a mistake is made and you have to file a report or claim with payroll, all of the information is available for a speedy resolution.
Protect Physician Investments
Hospitals and healthcare facilities have high turnover rates, especially when things aren’t running smoothly. Automated payments increase physician satisfaction and reduce turnover.
When healthcare organizations automate their compensation process, they will have better success with physician alignment initiatives and reduce the possibility of being issued penalties and fines.
This has numerous positive outcomes. With fully visible compensation data, organizations can determine how to optimize the entire payment process. This could include entering time logs and reviewing personal payment history and analytics.
Hospitals want to protect their physician investments, therefore they should work to simplify and optimize the compensation process.
Utilizing Compensation Data Analysis
When organizations can centralize and automate their payment processes, they have access to high quality data. This data includes the right sets and yields the right findings.
These are some of the optics that in-depth analysis can provide on a hospital-wide level:
- Number of active contracts
- Total of physician spend
- Annual/monthly/weekly hours logged
- Contract types
- Payments by market
- Hourly rates
- Contract age
- Contract maximum
- Hours by duty type
These are all incredibly important data points for understanding the totality of a physician workforce. This provides amazing advantages for physicians.
Open-Access Data
With the centralization and automation of compensation practices, physicians will have open-access to their personal payment information. This will include payment history, hours logged, duties logged, contract specifics and more. With the ability to understand your own personal payment data, you have the upper hand when reviewing your contract.
If you are able to see the trends of your compensation per hour or duty, then you are able to negotiate your contract to reflect better compensation.
Physician Compensation and Contracts
The future of automated physician compensation is a bright one. Not only will organizations have better control of administrative processes, but they will also be able to easily aggregate data about physician spend.
Fewer compensation mistakes and better insight into personal payment history means more control over your contract.
If you need to review and negotiate your contract, contact Contract Diagnostics. Our experienced team has hundreds of satisfied customers who have been able to take better control of their compensation and conditions.
Contract Diagnostics offers elite services for deserving medical professionals, which include:
- Compensation benchmarking
- Contract education
- Compensation and benefit reviews
- Contract negotiation
Get all of these services and more with 12 months of support for one low cost. Contract Diagnostics is ready to make contract reviewing and negotiating a smooth and comfortable process, rather than a stressful one.
To get in contact with the Contract Diagnostics team, give us a call at (888) 574-5526 or contact us online.
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