Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
DataDive: specialty compensation, on-call availability, medical directorship and starting salaries.
Public overview/report; detailed benchmarks require access.
Visit source ↗Fractional time does not imply fractional value.
A modest hospital may need only a fraction of a specialist’s time to restore otherwise absent capability. The starting point is the value of that physician commitment—not a discount for working remotely or part time.
Our proposed approach uses specialty compensation benchmarks as a starting funding baseline, then separately identifies operating obligations and a justified premium for durability and internal specialist replenishment. This is a hypothesis to be tested through discovery and actual agreements.
Above the payer: the institution directly funds agreed specialty capacity. Payer reimbursement for encounters remains separate. The physician-governed node—a trusted team organizing its own commitments—governs clinical judgment.
Start with the evidence
Use the relevant specialty and practice setting. Record the edition, underlying data year, sample, mean or median, hours, and what compensation includes. These sources are reference tools, not an endorsement or a prescribed rate.
AMGA (formerly American Medical Group Association)
Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey: specialty, workload and practice comparisons.
Public overview and methodology; full survey paid.
Visit source ↗SullivanCotter
Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey; separate on-call compensation research.
Public sample and findings; detailed benchmarks paid.
Visit source ↗Gallagher
Physician Compensation and Production Survey: compensation and clinical-hour expectations; separate call-pay and medical-director surveys.
Public findings; full surveys available for purchase.
Visit source ↗Doximity
Physician Compensation Report: physician-reported specialty and geographic compensation.
Public report; an accessible cross-check.
Visit source ↗Medscape
Physician Compensation Report: an additional physician-reported compensation comparison.
Online report; account access may be required.
Visit source ↗Source links checked November 6, 2026. Access terms and editions may change. We link to publishers; proprietary survey tables are not reproduced here. Survey populations may overlap, so multiple brands are not necessarily independent confirmations.
What should the coverage agreement account for?
Start with the care your community needs and the commitments required to provide it reliably. Identify the clinical work, availability, backup and supporting resources so both parties can build a workable funding plan.
| Disclose | Include |
|---|---|
| Clinical commitment | Scheduled hours, duties, consult volume, response times and coverage boundaries. |
| Availability and backup | Reserved availability, simultaneous demands, backup, planned leave and replacement obligations. |
| Current coverage arrangements and associated costs | Locums, agency fees, recruiting, signing incentives and repeated replacement costs. |
| Operating requirements | Licensure, credentialing, professional liability coverage, technology, administration and coordination; identify who pays each item. |
| Absent capability | Documented transfers, service limitations and coverage gaps. Distinguish measured costs from estimates. |
| Durability and replenishment | Peer onboarding, mentorship, development of future specialists, succession and team maintenance, with explicit deliverables and funding. |
| Funding readiness | Authorized decision makers, funding source, payment schedule, secured obligations and agreed reserve protections. |
A transparent funding architecture
Benchmarked physician commitment
+ defined operating obligations
+ justified durability and replenishment premium
Compare equivalent commitments. Do not divide an annual salary by arbitrary hours, add call pay already included, or count the same backup cost twice. Distinguish physician cash compensation from the full cost of a contracted capability.
Salary surveys do not establish the premium by themselves. Explain the work and commitments it funds. The parties independently determine their own terms; this resource establishes no collective rate or universal price floor.
A reserve secures obligations; it is not automatically an additional fee. Define its custody, permitted use and replenishment separately from compensation.
Could your next specialty service start here?
Bring a clear account of coverage commitments and relevant specialty benchmarks into parallel discovery with a physician team. Identify what is affordable, what can be shared with another institution, and what must be funded before anyone commits.
This pathway is for proactive formation. An active coverage emergency belongs with an emergency staffing or locums provider.
Explore the pilot →Return to the capacity board