Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey. Division of Member Services, Research American College of Healthcare Executives

Transcription

1 Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Division of Member Services, Research American College of Healthcare Executives Survey Report Spring 2016

2 BACKGROUND In 2002, the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) conducted a study to provide current information to health administration students, faculty and fellowship sponsors about compensation and compensation trends among postgraduate fellows in healthcare management. Follow-up studies were conducted in 2006 and This study in 2016 represents the fourth in this series of investigations. METHODS In April of 2016 a survey questionnaire, consisting of the same items included in the 2010 survey, was sent to all members of ACHE in the United States or Canada with the job title of postgraduate fellow (or its synonyms). The survey was sent electronically, and the data collection period was three weeks. The survey was first sent on April 11 and reminders were sent to non-respondents on April 18 and April 25. Of the 328 individuals who successfully received the survey, 218 responded for a response rate of 66 percent. A nonresponse analysis is included in Appendix A. Non-respondents were similar to respondents with regard to their gender, highest degree attained, field of highest degree and geographic distribution. However, respondents were more likely than non-respondents to have been recent graduates and be current members of ACHE (as opposed to having allowed their membership to lapse). FINDINGS Characteristics of respondents and work arrangements The characteristics of respondents and the work arrangements of their fellowships are shown in Table 1. The median age of respondents was 27 years, and 56 percent were female. The median number of years of full-time, post baccalaureate work experience respondents had acquired prior to taking their fellowship was two years. Few respondents held professional licenses such as licenses to practice medicine, registered nursing licenses or others Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 2 of 10

3 Table 1. Characteristics of respondents and work arrangements (N is the number of respondents) Median Age (years) 27.3 years (N = 213) Gender (percent) Female 56% Male 44 (N = 216) Median Years of Experience (years) 2 years (N = 207) Licensure (number) Medical (MD or DO with current license to practice) (N=0) Nursing (RN) (N = 5) Nursing home administration (N=0) Other healthcare license (e.g., pharmacy, therapy, LPN) (N=13) Law license (N=1) Certified Public Accounting (CPA) license (N=0) Term of fellowship (percent) Less than 12 months 3% months months 5 More than 23 months 32 (N = 207) Hired with Expectation of Continued Employment After Fellowship (percent) Yes 76% No 19 Don t know 5 (N = 202) Mean Hours Worked Weekly (hours) At the office 46.1 hours At home 4.7 Outside the office 2.3 Total 53.2 (N = 201) Less than 0.5% 2016 Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 3 of 10

4 Nearly 60 percent of fellowships were established for one year (about 2 percent of fellowships ranged between 12 and 18 months in duration). Thirty-seven percent of respondents held fellowships for over a year and most worked at least two years. About three-fourths of the respondents were hired with the expectation that they would continue employment with that organization after completing their fellowship. Respondents worked an average of 53 hours per week, with the average of 46 hours in the office, and the remainder at official office functions and at home. Characteristics of sponsoring organizations Table 2 shows the characteristics of the sponsoring organizations in which survey respondents held fellowships. The majority, 80 percent, of respondents worked in healthcare systems; 57 percent worked in healthcare system hospitals, and 23 percent worked in the corporate headquarters of healthcare systems. Eleven percent of respondents worked in independent, free-standing hospitals. Nearly 80 percent of respondents held fellowships in not for profit organizations, six percent worked in investor-owned organizations and the remainder worked in government settings (nine percent in non-federal settings and six percent in federal settings). Sixty-four percent of respondents worked in urban settings, 27 percent worked in suburban settings and eight percent worked in rural settings. Over eighty percent of respondents held fellowships in organizations with annual revenues of $200 million or more, with the majority working in organizations with annual revenues of more than $1 billion. Respondents compensation Respondents compensation is shown in Table 3. Respondents had a median income of about $56,600 (not including income from other work such as consulting, teaching or publishing). Three percent of respondents reported making less than $45,000 per year, and 12 percent made $70,000 or more. Over three fourths of the respondents reported earning between $50,000 and $70,000 per year. Twenty-nine percent of respondents indicated they were eligible for a compensation increase, and nearly one-fifth of respondents reported they were eligible for an incentive compensation/bonus program. Of those eligible for an incentive/bonus program, most (31 of 35 individuals) stated that they received a bonus based on specified corporate objectives (data not shown) Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 4 of 10

5 Table 2. Characteristics of sponsoring organizations (N is the number of respondents) Type of Sponsoring Organization System hospital 57% Corporate headquarters of a healthcare system 23% Independent, free-standing hospital 11% Ambulatory care/medical group 3% Association Other 5% (N = 202) Ownership Not for profit (includes faith-based and non-faith-based) 78% State or local government 9% Federal government 6% Investor-owned/for profit 6% (N = 202) Setting Urban 64% Suburban 27% Rural 8% (N = 202) Revenue Size $0 to $50 million per year 7% $50 million to $200 million per year 9% $200 million to $500 million per year 13% $500 million to $1 billion per year 18% Over $1 billion per year 53% (N = 193) Less than 0.5% 2016 Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 5 of 10

6 Table 3. Respondents compensation (N is the number of respondents) Annual Base Income from Fellow Employment Under $40,000 1% $40,000 - $44,999 2% $45,000 - $49,999 7% $50,000 - $59,999 60% $60,000 - $69,999 17% $70,000 - $79,999 6% $80,000 or more 6% (N = 207) Median Annual Base Income $56, 600 (N = 207) Possible for Compensation to Increase No 71% Yes 29% (N = 206) Eligible for Incentives/Bonus No 77% Yes 17% Don t know 5% (N = 207) 2016 Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 6 of 10

7 Respondents perquisites and employment benefits Table 4 lists the perquisites and employment benefits associated with respondents postgraduate fellowship positions. Nearly all respondents reported having paid time off and over ninety percent of respondents reported having paid holidays. Three-fourths of respondents reported that their employer paid in full for travel to meetings for professional development, and 49 percent reported that their employer paid for tuition for professional development/continuing education in full. Other perquisites such as life, medical, disability and dental insurance; along with retirement contributions, tuition assistance and moving expenses, were more likely to be paid in part than in full. Over one-third of employers did not contribute at all toward professional association dues; however, 42 percent of employers paid for such dues fully. Table 4. Respondents perquisites and employment benefits Organization pays for this fully Percentages (Rows sum to 100%) Organization pays for this in part (N is the number of respondents) Organization does not pay for this (N) Paid time off (health and personal) 99% --- 1% (200) Paid holidays 93% --- 7% (203) Travel to meetings for professional development 75% 18% 7% (202) Tuition for professional development/continuing education 49% 32% 19% (199) Professional association dues 42% 21% 37% (197) Life insurance 40% 49% 11% (198) Disability insurance 36% 56% 9% (196) Moving expenses 29% 40% 31% (197) Medical insurance 22% 75% 3% (204) Dental insurance 22% 71% 8% (204) Retirement contributions 14% 72% 13% (202) Tuition assistance (academic) 10% 49% 41% (196) 2016 Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 7 of 10

8 Comparison with 2010 survey findings Characteristics of respondents. The proportion of female respondents in the 2016 survey was three percent lower than in the 2010 survey and, correspondingly, the proportion of males was higher. (A similar decrease in the proportion of female respondents was also observed between the 2006 and 2010 studies.) The percentage of respondents who expected to continue employment with the sponsoring organization has increased markedly from 58 percent in 2010 to 76 percent in Characteristics of sponsoring organization. The proportion of respondents holding postgraduate fellowships at freestanding hospitals was five percent lower in 2016 than in More respondents said they worked in hospitals that were part of healthcare systems or in the corporate headquarters of healthcare systems than reported in the previous study. The percentage of respondents working in notfor-profit organizations was 78 percent in 2016, higher than the 66 percent reported in The proportion of respondents taking fellowships with the Federal government was 12 percent lower in the current study than in 2010, and a smaller percentage of respondents worked in urban settings in the current study than reported six years before (72 percent in 2010 versus 64 percent in 2016). Respondents compensation. The median income for respondents in the current study increased by about 14 percent between the 2010 and 2016 studies; it was $49,800 in 2010 and $56,600 in There was a large decrease in the percentage of respondents who reported their compensation could increase (46 percent in 2010 versus 29 percent in 2016). Respondents perquisites and employment benefits. There was a noticeable decrease in the proportion of respondents reporting that their organization paid fully for benefits and other perquisites between 2010 and The percentage of respondents who reported their organizations paid fully for tuition for professional development or continuing education decreased from 60 percent in 2010 to 49 percent in Other noticeable decreases in the perquisites and employment benefits that employers paid in full included medical insurance (with 33 percent of respondents reporting that this benefit was fully paid by their organization in 2010 and 22 percent reporting it was fully paid in 2016), retirement contributions (with 23 percent reporting this was fully paid in 2010 and 14 percent reporting this in 2016), moving expenses (with 37 percent reporting this was fully paid in 2010 and 29 percent reporting this in 2016) and disability insurance (with 43 percent reporting this was fully paid in 2010 and 36 percent reporting this in 2016). However, the proportion of respondents reporting that their organization did not pay at all for tuition assistance decreased from 52 percent in 2010 to 41 percent in Similarly, in 2010, 17 percent of respondents reported that their organization did not contribute to disability insurance for postgraduate fellows, and this number dropped to 9 percent in Finally, while the proportion of respondents reporting that their organization pays fully for their professional association dues in 2016 is the same as that reported in 2010 (42 percent), the proportion of respondents who reported that their organization does not make any contribution to professional association dues increased from none in 2010 to 37 percent in Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 8 of 10

9 CONCLUSION This survey was designed to assist fellows and their employing organizations with learning about demographic and educational characteristics of postgraduate fellows in healthcare management, as well as the types of organizations that provide such individuals with managerial experience and the level of compensation they offer. We will continue to conduct surveys like this in future years to track changes among these dimensions of postgraduate fellowship compensation. LIMITATIONS While indicative, the results from this current study, and those conducted previously, are not intended to represent all postgraduate fellowships in healthcare management. Respondents to the study were selected from ACHE s membership database and therefore are not a random, representative sample of all healthcare management postgraduate fellows Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 9 of 10

10 Appendix A. Non-response analysis (N is the number of respondents) Respondents Non-respondents (N = 218) (N = 110) Membership Status* Student 3% 5% Member Former Member % 99% Gender Female 56% 52% Male % 100% District 1 14% 13% International % 100% Year of Graduation* Before % 19% % 100% Highest Degree Earned Bachelor s degree 5% 4% Master s degree Doctorate % 100% Field of Highest Degree Health Administration 91% 86% Business 5 9 Clinical 2 2 Other % 100% * Chi Square significant p < Postgraduate Fellowship Compensation Survey Report Page 10 of 10