Hospitals require physician on-call coverage for regulatory, continuity of patient care and access to specialists who are not always on site.

Physicians charge for on-call coverage because it compensates them for the disruption, liability, and opportunity cost of being available outside regular hours, ensuring hospitals can maintain emergency services and regulatory compliance.

Factors influencing Fair Market Value (FMV) on-call compensation include the frequency and acuity of calls, hospital location and type, and the specialty and employment status of the physician. On-call compensation agreements typically include flat or tiered rates based on type and intensity of on-call coverage, and incremental stipends based on Work RVUs (wRVUs) generated during the shift.

In our experience, a little bit of upfront homework regarding recent trends in the frequency and acuity of calls and the associated unrestricted, restricted and called-in time expended by the on-call physicians will go a long way toward facilitating willing buyer/willing seller discussions, negotiations and agreement.

Healthscope has completed thousands of medical practice assessments, fair market valuations, base and on-call salary opinions, and business development plans for hundreds of hospitals, health systems, physicians, law firms and private companies.  Our assessment approach focuses on timely, straightforward, and accurate data that facilitates face to face discussion and decisions. Please contact us to discuss how we’ve supported hospitals, physicians and attorneys to develop data that supports on-call compensation rate agreement.