BY LESLIE CHAMPLIN
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FPs work fewer hours than many other specialists
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Shorter hours. Lower liability premiums than for many other specialists. A bump in take-home pay. Perhaps family medicine is on the upswing.
Family medicine has weathered a deep professional winter, but the specialty may be feeling the warmer breezes of spring, according to national surveys. The survey results imply family physicians have increasingly controllable hours, lower overall medical liability premiums than many other specialists and somewhat higher take-home pay than FPs had in the past.
Not every family physician feels these effects, but good news is blooming for many family physicians.
For example, the Medical Economics Continuing Survey reported family physicians worked an average of 50 hours a week in patient-related activities in 2003. That was three hours fewer than internists worked; two hours fewer than orthopedic surgeons put in; and 10 hours fewer than cardiologists, gastroenterologists, general surgeons and OB-Gyns worked.
The Medical Economics findings for FPs echo AAFP's 2003 Practice Profile Survey. In that, respondents said they spent an average of 40 hours seeing patients in the office, emergency department, hospitals or nursing homes or providing follow-up, referral or other telephone calls. Additional tasks, such as meetings or administrative work, claimed another 10 hours a week, on average. The total of 50 work hours was 10 hours fewer than in 1989.
FP incomes grow
Meanwhile, family physicians' incomes may be coming in from the cold. Though not as lucrative as procedure-driven subspecialties, family medicine has seen income growth. Family physicians earned an average income (after expenses) of $150,000 in 2002, according to the Medical Economics Continuing Survey. AAFP's 2003 Practice Profile Survey found FPs had an average income (after expenses) of $142,400 in 2002, up from $134,000 in 2001.
By comparison, Medical Economics reported average 2002 incomes (after expenses) of $150,000 for internists, $130,000 for pediatricians, $300,000 for gastroenterologists and orthopedic surgeons, and $230,000 for general surgeons.
Premiums less daunting
Likewise, family physicians face less daunting medical liability premiums than many other specialists. According to AAFP's 2003 survey, members paid a median of $9,600 -- a 21 percent increase since 1998 -- for basic liability coverage in 2002.
From 1999 to 2002, general surgeons' and internists' premiums billowed by as much as 130 percent, according to a study of seven states by the U.S. General Accounting Office. Surgeons paid between $28,000 and $111,000, and internists forked over between $10,000 and $39,000 in 2001 for basic liability insurance coverage, reported the Medical Liability Monitor.
The medical liability crisis has come home to medical students, according to the American Medical Association. Survey results released in November showed that 50 percent of medical student respondents said the medical liability situation was a factor in their specialty choice.
However, the lower cost of liability coverage doesn't automatically mean more students will opt for family medicine, said Jay Fetter, manager of student interest at AAFP. In a preliminary inquiry, the AAFP found no clear indication that liability costs would encourage students to opt for family medicine over high-risk specialties, he said.
To reach writer Leslie Champlin, e-mail lchampli@aafp.org.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2004 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.
