- Physician compensation increased across all seven specialty groups surveyed by SullivanCotter, with adult medical specialties seeing the largest increase at 7.2% and adult surgical specialties seeing the smallest at 4.3%.
- Primary care compensation increased 4.6%, following a 4.1% increase in 2025. Primary care also had the smallest growth in median work RVUs (wRVUs), at 0.8%.
- Rheumatology had the largest one-year pay increase at 10.4%, while several other specialties—including infectious disease, maternal-fetal medicine, general cardiology, endocrinology, hematology/oncology, and pulmonology—showed continued multi-year compensation growth.
- Physician productivity increased more modestly, with median wRVUs rising no more than 2.8% in any specialty group. Compensation per wRVU increased between 1.4% and 2.9% across the seven groups.
- The survey included 575 healthcare organizations and approximately 235,000 physicians across 240 specialties, providing compensation benchmarks by specialty, region, and position level.
- Recruitment remains a priority, with nearly 65% of organizations planning to add physicians in the coming year. About 95% offer sign-on bonuses and 49% provide student loan repayment as part of recruitment efforts.
- Compensation models continue to rely on base salary and wRVU-based productivity, while organizations are increasingly incorporating measures such as clinical outcomes and patient experience into incentive plans.
- Medicare payment changes remain a concern for physician compensation, with the 2026 conversion-factor increases affected by a 2.5% efficiency adjustment and additional payment changes proposed for 2027.
Resource: Physician pay rose across every specialty group in 2026, SullivanCotter survey finds