Physicians' opinions on compensation for telephone calls

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Medical Economics
• Physician Payment Models

Background:

• Physician compensation models significantly influence healthcare delivery.
• The fee-for-service (FFS) environment presents unique challenges for compensating non-visit patient interactions.
• Telephone encounters represent a growing component of patient care that is often uncompensated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the attitudes of pediatricians and other physicians toward receiving compensation for telephone encounters with patients within a fee-for-service system.
• To identify factors associated with physicians' willingness to be compensated for patient phone calls.

Main Methods:

• A mail survey was conducted among private physicians and medical school faculty in Albany County, NY.
• The survey included 67 pediatricians and 634 other physicians.
• Response rates were 82.1% for pediatricians and 68.3% for all physicians.

Main Results:

• A majority of physicians (69.9%) and pediatricians (58.2%) favored compensation for patient telephone calls, particularly after-hours calls.
• Factors associated with favoring compensation included greater liability concerns, negative sentiments about after-hours calls, and longer call durations.
• Pediatricians and surgeons were significantly less likely to favor compensation compared to the overall physician group after adjusting for these factors.

Conclusions:

• In a predominantly fee-for-service setting, most physicians support compensation for patient telephone encounters.
• Pediatricians and surgeons show less support for compensation, suggesting potential interspecialty differences in practice patterns or perceived value.
• Further research is needed to understand the reasons behind these interspecialty disparities to inform healthcare financing policies.