AMGA: Most medical groups operating at a loss

With very slight increases in compensation across specialties, most medical groups operated at a significant financial loss in 2010, reveals the American Medical Group Association's (AMGA) "2011 Medical Group Compensation and Financial Survey."

"In the face of the current economic climate, these medical groups continue to rise to the challenge of delivering the highest quality, coordinated care to the patients they serve," Donald W. Fisher, president and chief executive officer of AMGA, commented in a statement. "Much of the losses we see in 2010 are supplemented by other non-clinical revenue sources and/or funding from health systems with which groups are associated," he added.

In particular, AMGA's survey of 49,700 U.S. healthcare providers found that only Western regions neared the break-even point last year, while the Eastern region averaged a loss of $1,597 per physician. The Southern region averaged a loss of $1,870, and the Northern region lost $10,669 per physician in 2010.

As for compensation, nearly 70 percent of groups reported "marginal" increases, ranging from an average 2.6 percent raise for primary care physicians to roughly 6 percent for allergy, emergency medicine, and hospitalist/internal medicine. The overall average increase for medical groups was 2.4 percent in 2010, down from a 3.8 percent increase for more than three-fourths (79 percent) of physicians in 2009.

To learn more:
- read the press release

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