Getting Paid: Curing Part-Time Headaches<

by: Shelly K. Schwartz

It wasn’t lack of professional commitment that prompted Jennifer Shu to request part-time status at the Atlanta-based Children’s Medical Group at which she works. To the contrary, the pediatrician, who spends eight hours a week seeing patients, uses her extra hours pursuing her additional time-consuming interests.

Shu writes award-winning parenting books, reviews products for a juvenile equipment manufacturer, provides consulting services, and, of course, spends time with her son. “I’m part of a generational push for a better quality of life,” she says. “We’ve watched our parents and mentors work so hard, and now we want to go in the other direction — spend more time with family, do things we find personally rewarding.”

She’s not alone. The demand for flexible hours among physicians, both male and female, is well-documented and on the rise. Why? Part of the reason, says Maria Hayduk, senior manager for ECG Management Consultants in St. Louis, is that a growing number of baby boomers are looking to scale back as their retirement approaches.

“We’re seeing it at both ends of the spectrum, with baby boomers looking to retire and wanting part-time hours toward the end of their career and the X and Y millennial generations wanting more flexible schedules too,” says Hayduk. “There’s definitely pressure on physician organizations to accommodate part-time providers.”

In some cases, opening your practice up to physicians working less than full-time offers distinct advantages. Offering flexible hours can be a powerful recruitment tool for specialty practices struggling to find qualified doctors, particularly those that attract more women physicians, such as pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, psychiatry, and family practice. Working women still tend to remain the primary caregivers in their families. And according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, nearly 49 percent of medical degrees were awarded to women in 2005-2006, up from 27 percent in 1982-1983.

“Part-time hours are perfect for practices that suffer a critical shortage of physicians, such as radiology and anesthesiology,” says Jeffry Peters, president of the Chicago-based practice management consulting firm Health Directions. “It helps them attract flexible physicians who are better able to relate to patients with a demanding lifestyle.” Physicians eager for reduced hours, he notes, are also often amendable to weekend and evening schedules, giving practices the competitive advantage of being able to offer extended hours.

But with such flexibility also comes challenges. For starters, there is the increased administrative burden of accommodating part-time doctors, which can create scheduling conflicts and may necessitate completely revamping your compensation model.

And you’ll have to resolve how part-time providers will fit into your on-call mix, how reduced hours will affect their ownership track, and what impact, if any, such arrangements may have on continuity of care.

At what cost?

For most practices, the biggest hurdle is determining an appropriate pay level for providers who work less than full-time. Pay them too little and you won’t be able to recruit. Pay them too much and you’ll fuel resentment among your full-time physicians who understandably want to be rewarded with higher pay and timely promotions. “It’s important that compensation be consistent with their level of responsibility,” says Hayduk. “You will get tension between physicians if there is any perceived inequity of workloads and compensation.”

The Medical Group Management Association’s 2007 Compensation and Production Survey, which provides a breakdown of part-time physicians’ average compensation, retirement benefits, gross charges, collection ratios, and surgery cases can provide some guidance. But since all practices and specialties differ, you’ll need to define what your specific practice expe<

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