Primary care physicians hold their own as overall physician income takes its first dip

MANAGED CARE January 1996. ©1996 Stezzi Communications

Fresh survey results from the AMA show that the median income of nonfederal patient care physicians dropped in 1994 from the previous year for the first time since the association started collecting income data. But the primary care specialties of general/family practice and internal medicine bucked the trend; their median income held steady.

Little change noted in dependence on HMO and PPO revenue

Managed care may be spreading like wildfire, but you couldn't prove it by this AMA survey. Among primary care physicians who had HMO and preferred-provider organization contracts, respectively, HMOs and PPOs contributed a slightly smaller share of income in 1994 than they had the year before.

SOURCE: SOCIOECONOMIC MONITORING SYSTEM, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, CHICAGO