Physicians choosing hospital employment

Sixty-five percent of established recruited physicians were placed in hospital-owned practices and 49 percent of physicians hired out of residency or fellowship were placed within hospital-owned practices in 2009, according to the Medical Group Management Association's "Physician Placement Starting Salary Survey: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data."

Primary care and specialty care physicians in hospital-owned practices were offered more in first-year guaranteed compensation than in non-hospital-owned practices. Primary care physicians reported median first-year guaranteed compensation of $160,000 in 2009, while specialists reported $230,000.

The data also show that first-year guaranteed compensation has decreased by 2.1 percent since 2006 for specialists in single specialty practices whereas primary care first-year guaranteed compensation has increased by 17.4 percent in single specialty and 14.3 percent in multispecialty practices.