The daily rate of on-call physician compensation varied greatly among specialties. Family practitioners with and without OB/GYN earned $110 and $100, respectively, per day, whereas neurological surgeons earned $1,671 daily. Ophthalmologists earned $500 a additional compensation per day while general surgeons earned $905 and urologists earned $283. On-call compensation rates also differed on holidays and weekends; the holiday rate for general surgeons was $3,000, and family practitioners received $588 per day.
“For many privately owned physician practices, the trend toward payment for on-call coverage is a positive one. Hospitals are faced with staff issues regarding who should receive pay and why, and are frequently called upon to develop justifiable rationale to support their decisions,” Kenneth T. Hertz, CMPE, principal, MGMA HealthCare Consulting Group, said in the release. “At the same time, as the trend toward physician employment within integrated systems increases, the separate on-call payment disappears from the formula and instead, is integrated in the overall compensation package.”
On-call providers reported 971 hours worked per year for their annual stipend, 720 hours worked per month for their monthly stipend and 20 hours worked per week for their weekly stipend. Those who were paid on a daily rate were expected to be on call for a full 24 hours.
MGMA’s Medical Directorship and On-Call Compensation Survey: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data also includes demographics for physicians receiving and not receiving additional on-call compensation, time spent on directorship duties as well as annualized medical directorship compensation by group and individual characteristics.
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