Dear colleagues,
It has come to my attention that many of the hospital systems are not compensating rheumatologists for any increase in RVU value that CMS has just put in place starting January 1 to help compensate for cognitive specialists and to help increase recruitment into these underserved fields. This was approximately a 15% increase. For those who listened in on the post ACR talk that Karen Ferguson and I did we discussed this issue at that time. Karen had a table that she can share with anyone who is interested that updates the RVU/ code. I have checked with CSRO and there may be no legal recourse unless there is specific language in your contract. One Hospital system stated that they were waiting on data from MGMA which is terribly faulty and seriously under- valued. The last time we did a salary survey in 2017, MGMA was approximately 50% below the actual compensation in our state. However, the hospital systems use MGMA numbers to generate your salary. It is imperative that we collect good data and have a significant number of responders. PLEASE COMPLETE THE SURVEY BY MARCH 31.
This is completely confidential, and we will not associate names with the data. We need ALL rheumatologists in the state to answer to make the survey valuable to all, especially those who are employed.
Thank you,
Jeff Peterson, MD
WRA President