Physicians Generate $1.6 Million a Year for Hospitals, Survey Finds

April 14, 2016 - A single physician generates an average $1,560,688 a year in net revenue on behalf of his or her affiliated hospital, according to the Physician Inpatient/Outpatient Revenue Survey released by Merritt Hawkins, the physician search division of AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AHS). This is up from $1,448,458 in 2013, the last year Merritt Hawkins conducted the survey.

The survey asked hospital CFOs to quantify how much revenue physicians in 18 specialties generated for their hospitals in the previous 12 months. This included both net inpatient and outpatient revenue derived from patient referrals, tests, prescriptions, and procedures performed or ordered in the hospital.

Revenue generated by 11 of the 18 medical specialties increased compared to 2013.

Orthopedic surgeons topped the list of physicians examined in the survey. A full-time orthopedic surgeon generates an average of $2,746,605 annually a year on behalf of an affiliated hospital, followed by an invasive cardiologist at $2,448,136. A neurosurgeon generates $2,445,810 and a general surgeon $2,169,693.

"The value of physician care is not only related to excellence in patient outcomes and patient experience," said Merritt Hawkins President Mark Smith. "Physicians also drive the financial success of hospitals, even in a healthcare system that is evolving away from volume-based payments and toward value-based payments."

The survey also provides a cost/benefits analysis showing which physicians provide the best return on investment by comparing salaries in medical specialties to revenue generated on behalf of hospitals. Family physicians, for example, averaged a starting salary of $198,000 in 2015, while generating 7.5 times that much in hospital revenue. Orthopedic surgeons averaged $497,000 in salary while generating 5.5 times that much in hospital revenue.

"Primary care physicians such as family physicians and general internists represent an excellent return on investment, which is one reason they have been our number one and number two searches respectively for the last nine years," Smith said.

The emailed survey included 74 hospital CFOs nationwide and was conducted from December 2015 through March 2016.

Posted on Staffing Industry Analysts

[ Top ] [ Back ]