Surgeon Compensation—Value-Based Care?
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Dear Colleagues:
Please see attached an abstract from an informative article recently published in JAMA.
This article proves that context and times determine behavioral economics. It is no secret that currently, the business of healthcare is focused on financial survival and there has been a major shift over the past decade to employment models in many institutions, both private and public. Moreover, many Academic Medical Centers have grown through acquisition of private practice groups and Private Equity has entered the mix as well. For the younger surgeons, there may be no context for what it was like before. And, the truth is, as stated by these authors that fee-for-service models were all about volume not value. But wRVU models are no different, except that they may offer less for some surgeons. What is very clear is that if you work in an AMC like me, the tripod of our mission is Patient Care + Research/scholarship + Education. In my opinion, many current payment models based in wRVU’s disincentivize the last two in favor of the first.
Additionally, almost 20 years ago, I co-authored an article on Academic Compensation Plans (see attached). Our belief was that an AMC Orthopedic Department required a thoughtful combination of tangible and intangible incentives in order to hire and maintain the talent required to sustain its mission of Quality Patient Care, Research to improve care, and teaching residents and fellows. I’ve observed, as have many other surgeons and authors, the corporatization of healthcare which seems to contribute to the imbalance of these objectives.
What do you think about where we are now and where we are going as surgeons? You can answer on our LinkedIn or WhatsApp Group.
Best Regards,
Jon “JP” Warner, MD
Founder, CSS
Comments