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Despite a decades-long push toward value-based payment, physician compensation arrangements at health system-owned practices still primarily revolves around the volume of services delivered, according to a new study from RAND Corporation.
The study recently published in JAMA Health Forum examined physician compensation structures at 31 physician organizations affiliated with 22 health systems in four states. Researchers interviewed practice leaders, reviews compensation documents and surveyed the practices to determine what drives physician compensation for both primary care and specialty doctors.
They found that volume of services was the most commonly included physician compensation mechanism for both primary care and specialty physicians. More than 80 precent of primary care physicians and over 90 percent of physician specialists had volume has the primary metric driving their base pay, researchers reported.