Primary Care Compensation on the Rise; Family Physicians Up 17%

The law of supply and demand is starting to acknowledge family physicians.

For the 11th straight year, family docs top the list of the most highly recruited physicians in the United States, but they also continue to find themselves on the bottom rung for compensation, according to the Dallas-based search firm Merritt Hawkins.

The recruiter's 2017 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives report also shows, however, that demand for family physicians is exerting upward pressure on starting salaries.

The average starting salary for family physicians is $231,000, according to the 2017 report, up from $198,000 in 2015, an increase of 17%, while the average starting salary for general internists is $257,000, up from $207,000 two years ago.