The Association Between Primary Care Physician Compensation and Patterns of Care Delivery, 2012-2015

As health systems seek to incentivize physicians to deliver high-value care, the relationship between physician compensation and health care delivery is an important knowledge gap. To examine physician compensation nationally and its relationship with care delivery, we examined 2012-2015 cross-sectional data on ambulatory primary care physician visits from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Among 175 762 office visits with 3826 primary care physicians, 15.4% of primary care physicians reported salary-based, 4.5% productivity-based, and 12.9% “mixed” compensation, while 61.4% were practice owners. After adjustment, delivery of out-of-visit/office care was more common for practice owners and “mixed” compensation primary care physicians, while there was little association between compensation type and rates of high- or low-value care delivery. Despite early health reform efforts, the overall landscape of physician compensation has remained strongly tethered to fee-for-service. The lack of consistent association between compensation and care delivery raises questions about the potential impact of payment reform on individual physicians’ behavior.