In seven specialties, nurse practitioners now average at least $150,000 a year, with the average annual salary for NPs surpassing $137,000. Here are 10 stats on the compensation landscape for nurse practitioners in 2026:
Legal + Compensation
Many physician employment contracts guarantee a base salary for a new hire’s first two years on the job. By year three, that guarantee often disappears, replaced by a productivity-based or hybrid pay model that can significantly change a physician’s take-home…
As healthcare continues its shift toward value-based care, some physician leaders say the Stark law has become increasingly out of step with modern care delivery. While they acknowledge its original purpose of preventing financial conflicts of interest, they argue its…
Physician compensation kept climbing in 2026, but the shape of that pay looks different than it did a few years ago, according to Resolve’s “2026 Physician Compensation Report,” an analysis of more than 4,000 physician employment contracts across all 50…
Two New York ophthalmology practices have agreed to pay a combined $2.3 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of billing Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary transcranial doppler ultrasounds through a kickback arrangement with a third-party testing company, the…
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Physician assistant compensation is rising in 2026, but emergency medicine, gastroenterology and hematology and oncology specialists are outpacing the field with pay jumps of 6% to nearly 10% in a single year. The areas, industries and specialties where physician assistants…
Auto insurance provider Geico has accused two New York physician groups and the physician who owned them of billing the insurer more than $2 million for auto-accident treatments the company says were medically unnecessary or, in many instances, never performed…
Sanjiv Kaul, MD, a longtime cardiologist and former director of Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cardiovascular Institute, alleges the university illegally cut his pay and then retaliated against him after he sued, The Oregonian reported July 26. According…
Orthopedic surgery is the first medical specialty to average more than $600,000 in annual pay, according to Medscape’s “Physician Compensation Report 2026.“ The report is based on responses from 5,916 physicians surveyed from Sept. 5 to Dec. 17, 2025. Five…
Physician autonomy — both in clinical and organizational decision-making — has become a flashpoint across healthcare as the system becomes more consolidated, politicized and influenced by non-clinical stakeholders. Sixty-five percent of self-employed physicians said autonomy was very important to them…