Data glitch: How to avoid misusing physician compensation data that lead to red ink

Many healthcare systems pay their physicians based on data from physician compensation surveys or on valuations prepared using such data. Use of survey data alone in setting physician compensation levels, however, can lead to practice losses. Health systems that fail to consider the full range of economic factors are at risk for being in the red.

Survey data are designed to provide information in statistical format (also known as descriptive statistics) about survey respondents. As such, surveys are highly useful for benchmarking, providing a range of data for comparison relative to the survey population.