title: Making the connection between physician performance and pay.
abstract: Cost competition in health care, the demand for physician performance data, and the need to minimize fixed costs, such as automatic, annual physician pay increases, have prompted healthcare organizations to develop physician compensation structures that deemphasize fixed salaries and introduce variable pay tied to measurable performance goals. Case studies of this shift in approach to physician compensation at two organizations--a large, multispecialty group practice and a medical school affiliated with an academic medical center--show how replacing traditional pay systems that were ineffectual in fostering organizational improvements with compensation systems that tied pay to performance resulted in both improved physician performance and lower overhead costs.
authors.affiliation: Sibson & Company, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Woodson
mesh_terms: D004470:Economics, Medical; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005376:Financial Management / Q000379:methods; D006123:Group Practice / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000592:standards; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010816:Physician Incentive Plans / Q000191:economics*; D012201:Reward; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000145:classification*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013038:Specialization; D014481:United States