American physicians are increasingly paid through a mix of base salary, compensation based on an individual’s productivity or their practice’s financial performance, and incentive payments rather than any single method, according to survey data from the American Medical Association.
Physicians in solo practice are excluded from this analysis.
The share of physicians receiving compensation through two or more methods climbed to 60.8% in 2024, up from 51% a decade earlier, possibly reflecting a move away from simpler, single-source pay structures, responses from AMA’s 2024 Physician Practice Benchmark Survey found.
“Overall, physician compensation models have become increasingly blended, balancing financial stability with incentives for productivity, and reflecting broader changes in employment practices and organizational structures in health care over the past decade,” the executive summary of the AMA report noted.
AMA’s voluntary benchmark survey is conducted on a biennial basis and comprised of self-reported data that’s not independently validated. More than 5,000 physicians nationwide responded in 2024.
Salary remains the dominant component of physician pay, with 70.5% of surveyed physicians indicating they received a salary in 2024 – a jump of nearly nine percentage points from 61.2% in 2014. In 2024, survey participants reported, on average, 58.2% of their compensation came from salary (i.e., for every $100 of income received, on average nearly $60 came from salary).
Meanwhile, compensation tied solely to productivity fell by five percentage points over the decade, while pay based exclusively on practice financial performance dropped four points, according to the survey data.
But productivity as a part of pay has held its ground: 55% of surveyed physicians reported a productivity component in their compensation package in 2024, up 2% from the 2014 survey results. Incentive payments have also grown more common, with 39% of surveyed physicians reporting having received them in 2024, up from 30.5% in the 2014 survey results.
According to the recent survey results, specialty also plays a role in how physicians are compensated. Ophthalmologists reported drawing just 35% of their pay from salary, while psychiatrists reported the highest salary share at 68%. Orthopedic surgeons and ophthalmologists were the only two specialties to report more than half of their compensation came from productivity benchmarks.
The Texas Medical Association offers its members resources concerning negotiating a salary and common physician contracts.
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