Primary Care Doctors: 6% of Compensation Based On Quality Metrics in 2013

Part of the drive to a value-based health care delivery system will be gearing physician compensation to value-based metrics such as quality and customer service, according to the Medical Group Management Association.

"This is going to be a gradual shift. … It will be a trend that we will see evolve," said Todd Evenson, VP of data solutions and consulting services at the Englewood, CO-based organization.  "We're on the cusp of this information being available."

MGMA has been conducting an annual physician compensation survey for three decades. Beginning in 2012, the MGMA began collecting data on physicians who reported having a portion of their compensation linked to a pair of value-based metrics: quality and customer satisfaction. Primary Care doctors had 3% of their compensation based on quality metrics in 2012.

The data collected in 2012 and 2013 show modest levels of linkage between compensation and the value-based metrics, but there is the start of an upward trend, Evenson says. "We are just at the beginning. You have to be able to measure quality. We're even on the front end of that process."