Survey shows practices spending more for business staff

Physicians are spending more for staff that support the business side of their practices, according to a new survey.

Respondents reported a 4.6 percent increase in spending compared with last year on total business operations staff for each full-time equivalent (FTE) physician. The Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) 2014 Cost Survey said multispecialty practices spent a median of $52,009 per FTE on business operations staff. That includes general administration, information technology, accounting, and managed care administrative employees.

Family physicians spent a median of $32,772 per FTE. That's a 17 percent increase from the previous year, but MGMA cautioned that only a third of family physicians taking the survey provided information on this question. The organization noted that business administrative staff costs for family physicians rose 4.59 percent between 2009-2013.

MGMA didn’t ascribe a specific reason for the increases, crediting everything from practices simply wanting to make themselves more efficient and business savvy to offices reacting to regulatory changes in the medical and insurance communities.

The survey involved 2,518 medical groups across the country, including 475 family medicine practices.