Physicians compensated for volume, not quality and Report Says One-Third of Employers Could Drop Health Coverage in 2014

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 24 12:33:32 PDT 2011


 

June 10, 2011
Physicians compensated for volume, not quality
Fierce Healthcare
 
By Karen Cheung 

Like nails against a chalkboard, a new study by Merritt Hawkins
reveals that physicians are compensated for patient volume and not
quality, a trend that has some dismayed at current recruitment and
compensation approaches.

In general, 74 percent of recruited jobs offer performance bonuses.
Despite national initiatives to reward for quality of care, 90 percent
of those recruited jobs are linked to "fee-for-service style volume,"
according to the "2011 Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives"
study, reports the Wall Street Journal. Only 7 percent of jobs offer
bonuses for quality or cost reduction objectives.

The study also included recruitment trends. One in two physician job
openings are currently in hospitals, reports HealthLeaders Media.

Study researchers also noted signing bonuses are a commonly-used
incentive (and expectation) of physician candidates. Seventy-six
percent of recruited jobs offer a signing bonus, estimated at an
average of $23,790, up from $22,915 in the previous year, reports
American Medical News. Other recruitment incentives include loan
forgiveness (12 percent) and housing allowance (6 percent).

"Signing bonuses have gone from carrot at the end of the stick to an
expected part of the package," said Travis Singleton, senior vice
president for Merritt Hawkins. "It's an extreme negative these days if
you don't have a signing bonus."

The Merritt Hawkins study will publish this summer, according to amednews.
 



 
June 8, 2011
Report Says One-Third of Employers Could Drop Health Coverage in 2014

California Healthline
 
Nearly one-third of employers say they likely will stop offering
workers health insurance beginning in 2014, according to a recent
McKinsey & Company survey, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Key Details
Of the 1,300 surveyed employers, 30% said they will "definitely" or
"probably" stop providing employer-sponsored insurance plans after
most of the major federal health reform law provisions are implemented
in 2014.

Furthermore, 45% to 50% said they will "definitely" or "probably" seek
an alternative to employer-sponsored insurance plans, including asking
workers to contribute more to coverage or offering health plans only
to certain employees.

According to the report, published in McKinsey Quarterly, the findings
indicate that "the shift away from employer-provided health insurance
will be vastly greater than expected and will make sense for many
companies and low-income workers alike."

The McKinsey report's projections are higher than recent Congressional
Budget Office estimates, which suggest that only about 7% of employees
who have employer-sponsored insurance will be required to obtain
alternative coverage. More than 85% of employees said they would stay
in their positions if health insurance was no longer provided, the
report found. However, a majority of employees said they would expect
a compensation increase, which most employers said they would provide
(Adamy, Wall Street Journal, 6/8).

The federal health reform law appeared to be an important driver of
employers' decisions to abandon health coverage. According to the
study, the more employers understand about the reform law, the more
likely they are to cut sponsored plans (Walker, MedPage Today, 6/7).
 
 



Anna Parks &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service

 
 
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