The most driving cause for PAs to be knowledgeable this information is that medicine is moving in the direction of compensation structures that are based on determining the value that you bring to your practice in terms of direct economics and participation in committee activities and patient satisfaction.

This is a huge shift that I am not sure the average PA is ready for. Most practicing PAs continue to believe you just get paid a base salary and don’t have to worry about the rest of it.

The compensation that should be considered is how effective the PA is in his or her practice. One way to determine this is by examining all services the PA provides the patients in clinical practice, and then approximate the amount the of compensation value of a PA.

Typically, in terms of how much money did you bill, what did you collect, and how much it costs to have you here. What I tend to do is say, OK, let’s look at what PAs do. Because some of PAs duties in clinical practice is directly billable. In other words it’s billable services PAs provide that could be billed separately, but in some cases it is bundled together.

More PAs can increase their compensation in practice is to understand coding, know what to charge for your services, become familiar with major payer rules, and acquire production/cost data.

The cost-effectiveness of PAs should be considered. From a productivity standpoint, there are two ways this can be determined: by the money a PA generates and by the number of patient services a practicing PA provides.