The Mystery of Physician Compensation Value Revealed

When I graduated from my residency in OBGYN in 2017, I went from making $49,000 per year to $250,000. If my math is correct, that’s around a 500% raise?! I was thrilled. Suddenly that paycheck to paycheck lifestyle converted to one of comfort and ease. I could go out to eat without fretting over credit card limits, and it didn’t just have to be happy hour deals. I felt like a million bucks, even if it was technically only a quarter million. Little did I know that one of my fellow residents was only making $235,000 at basically the same job, while another got offered upwards of $350,000 just a few miles up the street. We didn’t talk about this until months later (maybe it was years) when I finally started feeling comfortable understanding contract language and negotiating for myself and my values. I was fascinated to know what others were seeing and negotiating.

It turns out I never got to see that $250,000 that year. I decided to leave my private practice and move to academics. Up go the benefits, but down goes the pay. But that didn’t stop the conversations amongst friends. Especially in my field of OBGYN, we’re a field heavily dominated by female physicians. Female physicians are historically known to have drastically lower salaries than our male counterparts, and women are also known to be less likely to negotiate. According to Doximity’s 2021 Physician Compensation Report, published in January 2022, the physician gender pay gap has been growing over the past five years. In 2021, the gender pay gap was 28.2%, representing a $122,000 pay difference! There was not one field in which women were paid more than men.

How do we even begin to address all of these discrepancies and conundrums? Well…Compensation Rx!

Contract Diagnostics, a consulting company specializing in reviewing and negotiating physician contracts, has recently launched a new product line called Compensation Rx. We are providing comprehensive and up-to-date data about average physician compensation for all specialties and all practice settings and compensation models.

Who would need this? Few physicians renegotiate their salary after they sign it. Few have received a raise. More than 40% of physicians haven’t received a raise in over four years! If you haven’t renegotiated your contract in the last year, YOU need this. Learn what you SHOULD be earning to negotiate with a purpose.

In 2021, we worked with Dr. Taylor, a full-time physician working for the same practice for seven years. He originally signed for $170,000 and received that same income since his original contract in 2015. He had helped to grow the practice, he was the most significant producer in the group, and consistently demonstrated that he was a genuine team player. He suspected new grads were earning more than he was but was unsure. He reached out to Compensation Rx to help with his review and negotiations. We pulled up-to-date compensation data and helped him with formal requests and an internal committee review. When all was said and done, Dr. Taylor ended up with a 41% raise – a new annual salary of $240,000 – a $30,000 retention bonus, and a new conversion model rate per wRVU. Dr. Taylor was brought from about the 40%ile to the 80%ile, where he belonged.

When you contact Compensation Rx, we will request basic information about your current position – are you in private practice or hospital employed? What field do you work in? What city and state do you work in? How long have you been in practice? What is your current compensation rate and model?

For only $297, based on your provided information, we will compile both MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) data and our internal data, as applicable to your current role. MGMA is a go-to resource for provider compensation data and analytics. Our internal data is comprised of real-time contracts reviewed by Contract Diagnostics from over 10,000 physicians to date. Compensation Rx will create a detailed report of all the data that best outlines your position and your anticipated compensation by percentile (10%ile, median, 75%ile). It can also pull data about average wRVU production for your field and dollars per wRVU.

You then receive a phone call from one of our Compensation Rx professionals to explain the data set you have received and compare your current compensation and model to this set. In your 30-minute phone call, we can help you develop questions to approach your negotiations with your supervisor or administrator to receive your worth.

As a fellow physician, I cannot emphasize enough how impactful and helpful I find this data. The compensation rates between communities, states, and even simply from year to year within the same job are dramatic. Most hospital systems have access to this information; we should be equally informed. Just as I mentioned, when I first started negotiating my contracts, I had no idea how vastly different the offers were that my friends and colleagues were receiving. It felt taboo to talk about (it’s not!), and as a result, I was perpetually uninformed or underinformed. Now, I will speak to everyone, most importantly Compensation Rx.

You worked hard to get where you are, and you work hard every day to stay where you are. Let us help you achieve your worth.

If you have a more lengthy or complete contract you would like to review, then our parent company, Contract Diagnostics, can help you with this! If you are uncertain about which product you need, give us a call and we will help you decide.