FAQs about the new ECU Physicians clinical faculty compensation plan:
Purpose and Use of the FAQs that Follow
The following FAQs are intended to clarify and describe how the productivity based compensation plan will be administered. If thereis any issue affecting compensation that may not be clear in these FAQs, or which may appear to be in conflict with the compensation plan approved by the ECU Board of Trustees and by the UNC Board of Governors, the ECU Trustees/UNC Board of Governors approved plan shall govern administration of the productivity based compensation plan. The source policy document, “ECU Physicians Clinical Faculty Compensation Plan” may be found online at the “Preserving the Mission” page of the Brody website.
Q1. What comprises my total annual compensation?
Total compensation is made-up of three components:
- Base Salary – fixed rate, based on academic rank, regardless of specialty
- Supplemental Salary – Negotiated amount above base salary to comprise subtotal of annual salary that is part of your monthly paycheck.
- Productivity Payment – this refers to a payment based on exceeding clinical targets, awarded once or twice a year. Facultymay receive productivity payments based on exceeding the defined clinical productivity benchmarks AND the availability funds to make these payments through ECU Physicians Practice Plan
Q2. What does the term Variance mean?
Variance refers to the positive or negative value of the difference between the physician’s annual salary and the sum of the money from sources identified to pay that physician’s annual salary (i.e.- clinical funding as measured by wRVU production, state dollars, contracts, administrative funds, funded research).
Q3. I have heard the terms “productivity” and “incentive” used to describe payments made to clinical faculty beyond base and supplemental salary. Is there a difference?
No. They are interchangeable terms used to describe the same thing. The preferred word to describe these payments is “productivity.”
Q4. How will I know what my clinical productivity is?
Clinical (wRVU) productivity reports will be shared with every faculty member at least quarterly. These reports will come from the Department Chair, Division Chief or CADA.
Q5. How often will productivity targets be changed?
Targets will be established only once annually and will not be changed during the year unless there is a major change in the faculty member’s assigned responsibilities.
Q6. How often and in what ways can my compensation be adjusted?
During the 2015 calendar year, the compensation plan will include two variable components: semi-annual productivity payments orsemi-annual reductions in salary supplement.
A financial variance of 10% or greater may trigger a reduction in salary supplement for the faculty member. Reductions may occur at two points during the year, based on a 12-month rolling average of wRVU productivity that is lower than their target wRVU rate.During the 2015 calendar year, reductions related to productivity will be capped at 10% of a faculty member’s annual salary (base + salary supplement) and the maximal annual reduction in compensationfrom low productivitywill not exceed 20% of the annual salary (base + salary supplement).
A faculty member who has substantive changes in job duties could have a change in compensation that is separate from these caps.
Q7. How often will productivitypayments be made?
Productivity payments willbe paid twice a year, following reconciliation of each faculty member’s clinical productivity during the previous six months, subject to the availability of funds.These payments will be capped based on what funds the ECUP budget has available to allocate toward this purpose.
Q8. How is a determination made about whether to pay productivity payments and how much to pay?
Initial determination of variance is made based on wRVU or productivity reports and a total amount of funds available to a department is based on the report. From this, Department Chairs can determine how to assign productivity payments based upon individual vs group productivity. Once individual productivity payments and reductions in salary supplement are recommended by the Chair, this datawill be reviewed by the Compensation Advisory Committee before being sent to the Finance Committee for provisional approval and recommendation to the Dean of the Brody School of Medicine.
Q9. My clinical work is compensated through a contract that ECUP has with an outside organization to provide medical services. Can I receive productivitypayments?
The Compensation Advisory Committee agrees that a method for dealing with contract dollars in relation to wRVUs must be established so that these faculty are eligible for productivity payments and adjustments in salary supplement. Some departments have already established internal mechanisms to accomplish this. A centralized method by which this will be more broadly accomplished has not yet been devised, due to the complexity of the myriad of contracts. The Compensation Advisory Committee continues to work on this, includingdetermining a method to address situations in which multiple facultyare compensated on one contract. In the interim, the best short-term solution for faculty on contracts to be eligible for productivity payments is to allow/encourage Chairs to use their discretion over how productivitydollars are assigned to individual faculty, thus ensuring highly productive faculty who are on contracts have their work rewarded.
Q10. How are wRVU targets established?
wRVU targets must be established in a manner that covers a faculty member’s salary supplement, benefit costs,and a portion of department overhead. ECUP overhead costs must be evaluated and distributed equally across departments. This is outside the purview of the Compensation Advisory Committee. However,a recommendation has been made to the Dean to establish a process to accomplish this.
Included in the recommendation to the Dean is that, at this time, establishing threshold targets isnot deemed to be useful.
Q11. What is Admin B? How is it used to make decisions about department funds allocation?
Admin B is a source of internal (department) funding to cover an administrative role that does not have an identified funding source, such as grants and contracts. It should only be used to provide funds for non wRVU generating work (i.e. administrative duties, committee responsibilities and unfunded research), and not for relocating dollars to cover unprofitable faculty or divisions.
Q12. How may productivityfunds allocated to a department be used?
Productivityfunds allocated to a department must be assigned to faculty based upon individual or group productivity, at the Chair’s discretion, and may not be held back to support other academic endeavors of the faculty and residents.
Q13. Once my payout rate for productivity pay is determined, is that rate subject to change? How frequently?
The payout rate will be determined annually and will not be changed through the year unless a substantial change in the faculty member’s job duties justify the need for such a change. In these cases, requests for change would come to the Compensation Advisory Committee for approval.