MANAGED CARE August 2002. ©MediMedia USA
Are clinical duties holding you back from a bigger paycheck? If you're a group practice medical director, maybe so. A Tampa, Fla., executive group says group-practice medical directors who focus full time on policy issues pull down $30,000 more in a year than do medical directors who retain some clinical duties. Part of the reason is experience — medical directors without clinical responsibilities tend to be older with more years in the management arena. But part of the difference, too, says the Physician Executive Management Center, lies in the size of the group. Larger practices tend to be more able to afford a medical director who can devote his full attention to nonclinical duties. Note the wording here — his full attention. All of the medical directors surveyed were men.
Median total compensation, 2001
Mean total compensation, all medical directors
The mean base salary for all group practice medical directors in 2001 was $210,000 (median $195,000). The mean and median bonus was 13 percent of salary.
SOURCE: PHYSICIAN EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT CENTER, TAMPA, FLA., MAY 2002