The average net revenue internists generated for hospitals held steady from 2012 to 2015, unlike that of primary care physicians in general, according to a survey by physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins.
Internists generated average net revenue of almost $1.83 million for their affiliated hospitals in 2015, down by less than 1% from the $1.84 million generated in 2012, when Merritt Hawkins last conducted its Physician Inpatient/Outpatient Revenue Survey of hospital chief financial officers. For primary care physicians more broadly – defined as family physicians, general internal medicine physicians, and pediatricians – the 2015 figure was $1.40 million, compared with $1.56 million in 2012 – a drop of 10.5%.
“Declining revenues generated by family physicians (and flat revenues generated by general internists) may be a result of risk-bearing reimbursement models, where primary care physicians and their employers are penalized for exceeding budgets,” the report suggested. Another factor in the decline among primary care physicians may be decreased productivity among physicians employed by hospitals. A survey of over 20,000 physicians conducted in 2014 by Merritt Hawkins indicated that employed physicians saw 8.5% fewer patients per day than did independent physicians.
Average net revenue generated by physicians in all 18 specialties measured almost $1.56 million in 2015, which was up 7.7% over the $1.45 million generated in 2012. Average net revenue for specialists was up 12.8%, going from $1.42 million in 2012 to $1.61 million in 2015.
The survey (available for download here) was completed by 74 hospital chief financial officers. Despite the small number, Merritt Hawkins said that the “results are reliable and accurate, in large part because the overall number for average annual revenue generated by all physician specialties for their affiliated hospitals has remained virtually unchanged” over the course of six surveys spanning 14 years.