Fair Market Value Compensation Analysis for a Telestroke Program
Client/Profile
Middle Atlantic academic medical center
Challenge/Situation
To develop models for compensating faculty consulting physicians working in a web-based consultation program for their on-call and patient assessment time. The medical center was implementing a telemedicine program to facilitate remote consultation by faculty neurologists and neurosurgeons with emergency medicine physicians and stroke patients at area hospitals that lack 24 hour/7 day specialist coverage.
The program uses a mobile cart/robot to provide two-way audiovisual communication between the consulting physician and patient via a web-based portal. Faculty neurologists and neurosurgeons provide dedicated beeper call coverage for the program.
Process
We researched and contacted several other telestroke programs to obtain information about models for compensating consulting physicians.
Based on that research and our experience in preparing compensation valuations, Veralon developed two compensation models for consideration. One model valued the on-call time while carrying a beeper. Since published compensation benchmarks were not available for this service, Veralon used a discounted full blended hourly rate for neurosurgeons and neurologists. A second model used a combination of a lower “beeper” rate and full hourly compensation for actual time spent conducting a patient consult or assessment.
Results
An opinion letter with supporting documentation for each model was prepared and presented to AMC leadership for their use in negotiating a contract for establishing this service. The program was implemented, using a variation of one of the models presented.