Two federal initiatives, CMS’ AHEAD model and the Rural Health Transformation Program, could help move physician payment toward rewarding outcomes over volume, according to a Sept. 24 Commonwealth Fund blog post by Lauren Testa, senior vice president of Impact Health…
Legal + Compensation
Federal health officials are considering a proposal to pay for AI tools that provide diagnostic or clinical care at 60% to 80% of what clinicians receive for the same work, Medscape Medical News reported Sept. 24. The proposal has raised…
Neurosurgery is the highest-paying physician specialty, with a median of $954,500, but it ranks last of 36 specialties for lifestyle balance, according to a Sept. 22 analysis from physician salary platform Marit Health. Neurosurgeons average 56.6 hours a week, more…
A California appeals court ruled Sept. 2 that Stallion Springs Medical Services, a medical staffing company, did not owe a common law duty of fair procedure to an emergency physician it removed from the schedule at Adventist Health Medical Center…
Eighteen states now generally ban or void noncompete agreements for physicians, according to a September 2026 state-by-state guide from law firm Tucker Arensberg. The firm sorts the rest into three groups. Ten states and Washington, D.C., allow physician noncompetes with…
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As Medicaid cuts, 340B changes and site-neutral payments squeeze hospital margins, existing Stark law exceptions and Anti-Kickback Statute safe harbors could give hospitals more room to align with physicians than many realize, according to a Sept. 21 brief from law…
About one-third of U.S. physicians have been a defendant or co-defendant in a malpractice lawsuit at some point in their career, according to a new report from Medscape. Medscape’s “Physicians and Malpractice Report 2026,” published Sept. 22, collected data from…
On Aug. 27, the American Medical Association and more than 150 other physician and healthcare organizations — including nearly every major national specialty society and 49 state and District of Columbia medical associations — sent a joint letter to CMS…
Six physicians who built billion-dollar companies are seeing their personal fortunes climb, according to Forbes’ billionaire rankings. Thomas Frist Jr., MD — a former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon who co-founded HCA Healthcare with his father, Thomas Frist Sr., MD,…
Physician compensation continues to climb faster than productivity, according to a new report from consulting firm SullivanCotter. The firm’s “2026 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey,” found that median total cash compensation rose year over year across all major specialties even…