ECG Management Consultants, Inc. Releases Findings From Its Second Annual Southeast Provider Compensation, Production, and Benefits Survey

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 5, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ECG Management Consultants, Inc., one of the nation's premier healthcare management consulting firms, today announced the release of its second annual Southeast Provider Compensation, Production, and Benefits Survey.

ECG's Southeast survey analyzes and reports information from 1,539 healthcare practitioners composed of 1,317 physicians and 222 midlevel providers. The surveys contain critical data, such as compensation-to-production ratios, including work and total relative value units (RVUs) and CPT procedure code distributions. Additional key data points include specialty-specific provider data for recruiting, patient access, benefit package values, malpractice, and compensation plan components.  This information, coupled with ECG's interpretation of market trends, enables survey members to assess their performance relative to the competitive local market.

General findings in the 2011 surveys based on 2010 data are as follows:

•  Compensation relative to work RVU production for physicians in the Southeast was 16.2 percent lower than compensation for physicians in ECG's national data set, as a result of slightly lower compensation and higher work RVU production of 13.6 percent.
   
• A majority of Southeast organizations plan to modify their existing physician compensation plans to incorporate nonproduction-based components as a strategy to succeed under healthcare reform.  Patient satisfaction and quality are the most common components being considered for revised compensation plans, as reported by 100 percent and 75 percent of survey members, respectively.
   
•  Overall benefit costs were $33,460 per physician, which represents 13.5 percent of compensation.  Health and retirement benefits are the most expensive benefits provided by Southeast survey members, but these costs are significantly lower than those in ECG's national data set.
   
•  The recruitment efforts of Southeast survey members are focused on primary care physicians, which are also reported as the most difficult to recruit.  Southeast organizations are employing several strategies to attract potential candidates to their organizations, including offering more creative recruitment benefits and packages of higher value.
   
• Health system-employed groups continue to allocate significant funds of approximately $156,000 per physician per year, or 37 percent of collections, to their physician entities.
   
• All Southeast survey members employ midlevel providers, while 67 percent are also currently recruiting for additional providers.  A majority of survey members indicated that their recruitment of midlevel providers is driven by the physician shortage.

"ECG's Southeast survey, now in its second year, is recognized as a comprehensive source for physician performance benchmarks and trends in the Southeast," said Ms. Maria C. Hayduk, Senior Manager at ECG and head of its custom survey and proprietary research practice.  "ECG is committed to continuing to grow and enhance our survey products for our members and our clients.  In 2011, ECG introduced ECGVault, our online benchmarking portal, which is made available exclusively to the 115 member organizations of the 2011 ECG provider compensation surveys, including members of our Northwest, Midwest, Southeast, and national pediatric subspecialty surveys."

"I am proud of the quality of the information we are producing in our surveys.  For over 10 years, we have calculated production from CPT-level data.  That ensures the accuracy of our benchmarks but also provides ECG with the ability to benchmark outpatient clinical care and to identify variation," said Mr. James W. Lord, Principal of ECG's Healthcare – Midwest practice.  "We use this critical information every day to craft innovative hospital/physician arrangements that recognize the intricacies of movement toward a value-based payment system."

ECG Survey Methodology

The Provider Compensation, Production, and Benefits Surveys are developed in partnership with local healthcare leaders and ECG's physician compensation and production experts.  These experts go to extraordinary lengths to ensure data quality and validity.  Raw survey data is reviewed by ECG's survey analysts, who identify outliers for verification by the surveys' members; if data cannot be validated, it is removed.  At the conclusion of this process, ECG converts the raw data into succinct, proprietary information.

About ECG Management Consultants, Inc.

ECG offers a broad range of strategic, financial, operational, and technology-related consulting services to healthcare providers.  ECG provides specialized expertise in developing and implementing innovative and customized solutions that effectively address hospital/physician relationships, strategic and business planning, specialty program development, information technology, and the complexities of the academic healthcare enterprise.  ECG has offices in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.  For more information, visitwww.ecgmc.com.

Contact:  

Ms. Kathryn A. SweyerECG Management Consultants, Inc.
[email protected]
Telephone:  206-689-2200
Fax:  206-689-2209
www.ecgmc.com

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Source: ECG Management Consultants, Inc.