A report released May 2 by management consulting firm Kaufman Hall has good news for physician practices still recovering from the negative effects of COVID-19, such as reduced patient volumes.
According to the “Physician Flash Report: April 2022,” physician practice revenues, compensation, and productivity rose in the first quarter of 2022 with patient volumes higher than the same period last year. However, practices still face a number of challenges with those higher patient volumes such as a difficult labor market, inflation, expense increases, and higher subsidies/investments to support physician practices.
Some of the specifics of the report:
- Net patient revenue per physician increased 1% from Q4 2021 to $636,674 in Q1 2022 and 9.6% year over year (YOY)
- Driven by higher productivity, median physician compensation per physician full-time equivalent (FTE) rose 3.6% quarter on quarter (QOQ) to $349,072 in Q1 2022, the highest level in two years
- Measured by physician work relative value units (wRVUs) per FTE, physician productivity rose 7.4% QOQ, 15.4% year-over-year, and 20.2% compared to Q1 2020
- Median investment/subsidy per physician FTE jumped 14.4% from Q4 2021, rising to $288,227 in Q1 2022
However, despite the revenue increases listed above, increased physician productivity meant that net patient revenue per physician wRVU dropped 6.5 percent from the first quarter of 2021 and 2.7 YOY to $93.36 in Q1 2022. Expenses are also the highest they’ve been in two years, with total direct expense per physician FTE up 7.1 percent QOQ and 10.5 percent YOY to reach $946,602 for Q1 2022.
Labor shortages are another challenge physicians continue to struggle with, based on the report, which showed that support staff FTEs per 10,000 wRVUs were down 7.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021 and down 6.3 percent compared to Q1 2021 and Q1 2020.