Medscape released its 2018 Medscape Anesthesiologist Compensation Report examining a variety of compensation-related factors throughout the anesthesia industry.
Medscape collected responses from 20,329 physicians in total. Anesthesiologists who responded to the survey disclosed their compensation, average work week and time spent with patients, among others.
Here are five statistics on anesthesiologists' payer and patient relationships.
1. Approximately 53 percent of anesthesiologists believe they'll participate in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.
2. Anesthesiologists will not drop payers they believe pay poorly. Twenty percent said they need all payers, 12 percent said it was inappropriate to do so and 15 percent said no because of other reasons. Fourteen percent said they would drop a payer that paid poorly and 38 percent said it wasn't applicable.
3. Seventy-two percent of all anesthesiologists said they'd continue to accept and see Medicare/Medicaid patients.
4. Anesthesiologists are split when it comes to discussing treatment costs with patients. Thirty-five percent said they never do it, 26 percent said they occasionally do it and 12 percent said they regularly do it.
5. The majority of anesthesiologists spend between 30 hours and 55 hours a week with patients. Thirty-six percent of respondents spend between 46 hours and 55 hours a week with patients, while 35 percent of respondents spend between 30 hours and 45 hours with patients per week.