ID Physician Compensation Initiative

The disparity in compensation that exists for ID compared to other specialties in medicine in the United States has come into stark light during the pandemic, when ID physicians have been called upon to do more — and often with less.

IDSA physician compensation data, coupled with national multispecialty surveys such as MGMA, AMGA and Sullivan Cotter, have found that ID lags behind nearly all specialties in medicine. While a variety of specialties have experienced higher rates of compensation growth over the last five years, ID physician compensation has been relatively flat over a variety of compensation metrics compared to other specialties.

View ID Physician Compensation Data 

Making the case for adequate compensation will be a crucial step in growing the ID workforce, strengthening the future of the field and meeting existing and emerging needs. That’s why the IDSA Board of Directors established a Compensation Strike Team in 2020, charged with developing a strategy and implementation plan for increasing compensation as a key component of IDSA’s strategic plan. The initiative aims to achieve two overarching goals:

● Developing physician negotiation education & training: Equipping members to be their own advocate, incorporating negotiation tools and a repository of informational resources aimed at increasing physician compensation

● Expanding the value-based contracting strategy: Supplementing ID-specific national and regional value-contract participation advocacy, with locally-focused efforts at the hospital, diagnosis-related group-specific panel and population levels

To implement this effort, a Compensation Task Force, composed of ID physicians representing an array of settings, was convened to carry out the Strike Team’s recommendations.