Better data drives better decisions.  To help FQHCs make sense of the “information” they are getting on trends in family practice provider recruiting, Merces conducted a one-week survey of FQHCs (January 19 – 29, 2016) to find out what they had to pay to recruit new family practice physicians and nurse practitioners.  Full findings of this survey, which currently contains data on 136 hiring experiences, are only available to participants (the survey is still open), but we can provide some information you may find useful here:

• There does not seem to be a dramatic increase in salaries accepted over the last 12 months. While average salaries have increased, it seems to be primarily because recent hires have been of more experienced physicians, who command higher pay.
• Among the middle 50% of physician hires, there is a 23% range in starting salaries; the range for nurse practitioners is less than half that.
• Salaries make up about 95% of predicted total cash compensation.
• Health centers in rural areas definitely have more of a challenge in hiring physicians, and do have to pay more (about 7%); on the other hand, nurse practitioners have lower base salaries in rural areas (but higher total compensation).
• About one quarter of the hires reported in the last year involved the use of a recruiter — controlling for factors such as provider experience and practice setting (urban vs. rural), FQHCs using the services of recruiters paid about 12% more in total cash compensation, on average, than those who did not.

All participants have received their survey reports.  Health centers who would like access to the data can participate, and will receive a copy of the survey after they have submitted their data.  All participants will receive updates to this report as further results are released.  https://www.research.net/r/MercesFPProviderSurvey.  For further information, contact Merces at research@mercesconsulting.com.