Keys for successfully implementing physician bonus plans

Once you agree on what incentives to include in your compensation plan, focus on the specifics of how your physicians can achieve them. Here are some success factors in implementing bonus plans:

1. Establish explicit work standards. Measure with objective standards like FFS production, RVUs, work hours, coding reviews.

2. Implement reviews, evaluation and feedback directly affecting bonus factors. Unless you measure, review and share information with physicians, how can they adapt to the standards? Don't break the bad news with a tiny bonus check - tell them how they're doing all along.

3. Provide strong physician leadership. Have a respected partner oversee the transition to any new compensation arrangement. Your manager or administrator can develop the mechanism and prepare the data, but a partner-level physician must lead the process. Without clear leadership, the best designed bonus plan will languish.