HealthLawProf Blog

Putting a Dollar Figure on a Doctor’s Worth to a Hospital

In an article posted on the WSJ Health Blog, James A. White asks and answers the following questions:

What’s a doctor worth to a hospital in terms of annual revenue? And what specialties average the most and the least in hospital revenue generation? The answer to the first question averages about $1.54 million a year, based on 114 U.S. hospital responding to a survey by physician recruiters Merritt Hawkins. That’s up slightly from the $1.5 million a year per doc that hospitals averaged in revenue in 2007, the last time the recruiting outfit took the survey. (Revenue here means net inpatient and outpatient dollars derived from referrals, tests and procedures done in the hospital.)

Merritt Hawkins also asked about revenue generation in the last 12 months by 17 doctor specialties. Not all 114 hospitals replied for all specialists but below are the averages for the responses received. Also included is a list of average annual salaries that came from other Merritt Hawkins data:

Hospital Annual Revenue per Doctor by Specialty

Specialty	Avg. Revenue	Avg. Salary
Neurosurgery	$2,815,650	$571,000
Cardiology/Invasive	$2,240,366	$475,000
Orthopedic Surgery	$2,117,764	$481,000
General Surgery	$2,112,492	$321,000
Internal Medicine	$1,678,341	$186,000
Family Practice	$1,622,832	$173,000
Hematology/Oncology	$1,485,627	$335,000
Gastroenterology	$1,450,540	$393,000
Urology	$1,382,704	$401,000
OB/GYN	$1,364,131	$266,000
Cardiology/Non-Invasive	$1,319,658	$419,000
Psychiatry	$1,290,104	$200,000
Pulmonology	$1,204,919	$293,000
Neurology	$907,317	$258,000
Pediatrics	$856,154	$171,000
Ophthalmology	$842,711	$282,000
Nephrology	$696,888	$240,000

Top 10 Papers on SSRN for Journal of Public Health Law and Policy

January 16, 2010 to March 17, 2010 Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 90 Taking Prevention Seriously: Developing a Comprehensive Response to Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Jonathan Todres, Georgia State University College of Law, Date posted to database: January 29, 2010 Last Revised: February 2, 2010 2 80 Doing Their Duty: An Empirical Analysis of the Unintended Effect of Tarasoff v Regents on Homicidal Activity Griffin Sims Edwards, Emory University, Department of Economics, Date posted to database: February 1, 2010 Last Revised: March 5, 2010 3 75 Employing E-Health: The Impact of Electronic Health Records on the Workplace Sharona Hoffman, Case Western Reserve University - School of Law, Date posted to database: January 4, 2010 Last Revised: January 4, 2010 4 55 What Estate Planners Need to Know About the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act Gerry W. Beyer, Kimberly Sias, Texas Tech University School of Law, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN, Date posted to database: December 23, 2009 Last Revised: December 23, 2009 5 55 Why Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime Can Never Succeed Amir Attaran, University of Ottawa: Faculties of Law and Medicine, Date posted to database: February 15, 2010 Last Revised: February 15, 2010 6 47 Reviewing Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives of Tobacco Industry in Pakistan Mian Sajid Nazir, Mehnoor Iftikhar, Aiza Hussain Rana, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN, Date posted to database: January 8, 2010 Last Revised: January 19, 2010 7 42 Water Rights and Human Rights: The Poor Will not Need Our Charity if We Need Their Water David Zetland, University of California, Berkeley - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, Date posted to database: February 8, 2010 Last Revised: March 9, 2010 8 35 Romance is Dead: Mail Order Brides as Surrogate Corpses Daniel Z. Epstein, Congressional Staff, Date posted to database: December 27, 2009 Last Revised: February 1, 2010 9 34 Privacy, Consent, and Governance Lisa M. Austin, Trudo Lemmens, University of Toronto - Faculty of Law, University of Toronto - Faculty of Law, Date posted to database: January 19, 2010 Last Revised: January 19, 2010 10 33 Manufacturing the Wings of Icarus: FDA Regulation of Nanotechnology Used in Products for Human Consumption Including Food, Dietary Supplements, Cosmetics and Sunscreens Katharine Van Tassel, Rose Goldman, Western New England College - School of Law, Harvard School of Public Health, Date posted to database: February 22, 2010 Last Revised: February 22, 2010

Conflicts of Interest in Clincial Trial Recruitment & Enrollment: A Call for Increased Oversight

A White Paper called Conflicts of Interest in Clincial Trial Recruitment & Enrollment: A Call for Increased Oversight by The Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy at Seton Hall Law School (Kathleen M. Boozang, Carl H. Coleman, Tracy E. Miller, Kate Greenwood, Valerie Gutmann, Simone Handler-Hutchinson, and Catherine Finizio) has been posted on SSRN. The abstract reads:

This White Paper makes several policy recommendations to eliminate or manage the conflicts of interest that arise pursuant to the compensation arrangements between investigators and their institutions with drug and medical device manufacturers as they affect the recruitment and enrollment of human research subjects in clinical trials. The paper seeks to accomplish overall financial neutrality as between treatment and research, so that physicians' decisions regarding inclusion of patients in clinical trials is unaffected by their own financial interests.

Nano Luggage Designed to Carry Therapeutic Agents to Diseased Cells

For the first time, scientists have fully emptied the Cowpea mosaic virus of its genetic material rendering it non-infectious. Particles of the virus can now be used as nano luggage that carries therapeutic agents directly to diseased cells. The paper entitled Cowpea Mosaic Virus Unmodified Empty Virus-Like Particles Can Be Loaded with Metal and Metal Oxide was published in the specialized nanotechnology journal Small. A ScienceDaily article explains the implications of this research:

[S]cientists have succeeded in growing empty particles derived from a plant virus and have made them carry useful chemicals. The external surface of these nano containers could be decorated with molecules that guide them to where they are needed in the body, before the chemical load is discharged to exert its effect on diseased cells. The containers are particles of the Cowpea mosaic virus, which is ideally suited for designing biomaterial at the nanoscale.

Scientists have previously tried to empty virus particles of their genetic material using irradiation or chemical treatment. Though successful in rendering the particles non-infectious, these methods have not fully emptied the particles.

One application could be in cancer treatment. Integrins are molecules that appear on cancer cells. The virus particles could be coated externally with peptides that bind to integrins. This would mean the particles seek out cancer cells to the exclusion of healthy cells. Once bound to the cancer cell, the virus particle would release an anti-cancer agent that has been carried as an internal cargo. Some current drugs damage healthy cells as well as the cancer, leading to hair loss and other side effects. This technology could deliver the drug in a more targeted way.