5 Snapshots from the 2023 BFMV Physician Leaders Compensation Report

Earlier this year, BFMV released the 2023 Physician Leaders Compensation Report, which reflects compensation for 3,462 physician leaders categorized into 16 leadership positions, 7 revenue categories, 39 clinical specialties, 13 organization types, and by state. The categorization process included our review of organizational information in 990 data and research on individual physician leaders included in the study.

We have found these data particularly helpful to our own analyses of stacked compensation arrangements, i.e., when physician leaders have multiple roles. This article presents a sampling of 5 helpful tables included in the report. Full report tables include 25th, median, average, 60th, 75th, and 90th percentiles.

1. Compensation by Leadership Position

The following snipped table presents the average compensation for 16 leadership positions nationwide. We found that the highest-paid physician leaders were Chief Physician Executive ($681,753) and Physician Group/Operations President ($656,979).

2. Compensation by Leadership Position and Revenue Category

The second snapshot presents a portion of the data disaggregated by leadership position and revenue category of the compensating organization. The data show that physician leaders tend to earn more in higher-revenue organizations.

3. Compensation by Leadership Position and Clinical Specialty

The third snipped table included here presents a portion of the data disaggregated by leadership position and the clinical specialty of the physician leader. Marked differences are evident from this partial sample with regard to compensation across different specialties. In general, BFMV observed that physician leaders with specialized clinical backgrounds earned more than those with primary care backgrounds. The full report offers granular detail with percentiles for distinct specialties.

4. Compensation by Leadership Position and Organization Type

The fourth snapshot presents a portion of the data disaggregated by leadership position and the type of compensating organizations. Compensation amounts for physician leaders with the same title can vary widely from one type of organization to another. For example, the average compensation for a Medical Director – Chief/Executive is $253,193 for hospice and home health types and $438,217 for hospital/health system types. The full report offers critical distinctions for going rates in the market based on organization type.

5. Compensation by Leadership Position and State

Finally, our last snipped table presented for the purposes of this overview reflects a portion of the data disaggregated by leadership position and state. Perhaps informative for circumstances related to recruitment, relocation, and retention; these data points provide assistance for fine-tuning the national benchmarks and may offer additional support for possible negotiations.