MANAGED CARE July 1997. ©1997 Stezzi Communications
The median base salary of family physicians has posted healthy increases of more than 4 percent in the last two years on top of a whopping 13-percent jump in 1995, according to the Hospital and Healthcare Compensation Service. AMA figures sketch out three other facets of family physicians' current condition: They're less likely than the average doctor to be dropped or denied a contract by managed care organizations; they derive a somewhat smaller (though growing) share of their revenues from Medicare than the average physician, and they are more likely than most doctors to contract directly with employers — although not by as wide a margin as one might think, given family physicians' prominence as "gatekeepers."
Sources: HOSPITAL & HEALTHCARE COMPENSATION SERVICE, OAKLAND, N.J., 1997 (FIRST CHART); SOCIOECONOMIC MONITORING SYSTEM, CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, CHICAGO, 1997 (OTHER CHARTS).