MGMA DataDive explained: what’s in it, what it costs, and alternatives

What does MGMA mean, and what is MGMA data?

MGMA stands for the Medical Group Management Association, a US professional association for the people who run medical practices: practice administrators, physician leaders, operations and finance staff. Alongside education, certification and advocacy, MGMA runs some of the best-known benchmarking surveys in ambulatory care.

“MGMA data” usually means the results of those surveys. Participating organizations submit data on their providers and practices each year; MGMA cleans and aggregates it and publishes benchmarks by specialty, region, practice type, ownership and other cuts. The best-known output is physician and advanced practice provider (APP) compensation and production data, which is why the term is often used as shorthand for “what physicians get paid.” For an overview of that compensation data specifically, see MGMA salary data explained.

What is MGMA DataDive?

DataDive is where subscribers access MGMA benchmarks online. Instead of a fixed printed report, it lets you filter a dataset down to the cut you need (a specialty in a region, a practice type, a size band) and view or export percentiles. Access is through the MGMA website with an organizational subscription.

DataDive is organized into modules, each built from a different MGMA survey. Module names, scope and bundles change over time, so treat the table below as a guide to the main areas rather than a product catalog.

MGMA has offered bundled access across modules, sometimes under names such as DataDive All Access. Because what a bundle includes can change by year and by contract, confirm the exact modules, specialties and report years with MGMA before you buy.

Better performers. In some datasets, notably practice operations, MGMA publishes a separate cut for practices that meet its “better performer” criteria on measures such as profitability, productivity or operations. Comparing yourself to that cut answers a different question from the overall median: not “what is typical” but “what do stronger practices look like.” The criteria are defined by MGMA and can differ by module and year, so read the definitions before quoting the numbers.

How to read MGMA compensation data: percentiles and wRVUs

MGMA reports distributions. The median (50th percentile) is the middle of the respondents for a cut; the 25th and 75th percentiles bracket the middle half; the 90th marks the top tenth. Most comp plans target a percentile rather than a single figure, and fair market value reviews look at where a provider sits on both pay and production.

Illustrative: a physician with $330,000 of total compensation and 5,500 wRVUs earns $330,000 ÷ 5,500 = $60.00 per wRVU. Suppose the benchmark for their specialty and region puts their pay near the 75th percentile and their wRVUs near the 40th. That mismatch is the pattern reviewers look for: pay above production is harder to support, and the reported comp-per-wRVU percentile will usually sit high.

Illustrative. The compensation, wRVU and percentile positions above are invented to show the method. They are not MGMA data.

Three habits that keep the reading honest:

• Use reported ratios directly. The 75th percentile of compensation divided by the 75th percentile of wRVUs is not the 75th percentile of compensation per wRVU.
• Check the sample size. A narrow cut (small specialty, single region, specific practice type) can rest on few respondents. A broader cut with a larger n is often more reliable.
• Age the data. Survey figures describe a prior year. Trend them forward to your decision date, as covered in the healthcare compensation benchmarking guide.

MGMA survey participation: why it matters

Every DataDive benchmark is only as good as the organizations that submitted data. Participation matters for three reasons:

• It shapes the sample. The benchmark reflects the organizations that chose to take part that year. If your peers don't participate, the cut you need may be thin or missing.
• It affects cost. Survey participants typically receive discounted pricing on the resulting data.
• It is real work. Submitting provider-level compensation and production data means pulling payroll and billing records, mapping them to MGMA definitions and answering follow-up questions. Plan for it in your annual calendar.

Because data is self-reported by organizations, definitions matter. How a practice classifies a bonus, a directorship stipend or a part-time provider affects what lands in the benchmark. MGMA publishes survey definitions and applies its own checks, but users should still read the methodology notes for the module they rely on.

How much does MGMA data cost?

MGMA does not publish a single list price for DataDive. What you pay depends on:

• Which modules and report years you license, and whether you buy a bundle.
• Whether your organization participated in the relevant survey.
• MGMA membership status.
• The number of users and the size or type of your organization.

Contact MGMA for current pricing. Before you sign, list the specialties, regions and cuts you actually need and confirm each one is included in what you're licensing.

There is no official “MGMA calculator” that replaces the data. The formulas in the previous section, such as compensation per wRVU, can be run in a spreadsheet against whichever percentiles you license. For employed staff pay outside physician comp, tools like the compa-ratio calculator position pay against a range.

Limitations of MGMA DataDive

• Annual cycle and lag. Data is collected once a year and published months later, so it describes a period already behind you.
• Physician and APP focus. The compensation data is built around employed physicians and APPs in medical groups and health systems.
• Self-reported. Quality depends on what participants submit and how they map it to MGMA definitions.
• Limited for nursing, allied and contract labor. Registered nurses, therapists, technologists and other allied roles, and the pay and bill rates of travel, per diem and locum work, are largely outside its scope. It does not report what facilities pay staffing agencies.

None of this undermines MGMA for its core job. It matters when people try to use annual physician survey data to price contingent labor, where rates can shift week to week.

MGMA DataDive alternatives: which compensation data for which job

Large hospitals and health systems rarely rely on one source. Physician compensation teams commonly blend several surveys, and workforce teams add separate data for nursing, allied and contract labor.

When to use what:

• Designing a physician comp plan or documenting FMV: physician compensation surveys such as MGMA, SullivanCotter or AMGA, often blended. See ClinicalRate vs SullivanCotter for how that survey differs from live rate data.
• Benchmarking practice costs and staffing: MGMA practice operations data.
• Pricing or approving travel, per diem, nursing and allied contracts: live market rates. ClinicalRate tracks pay and bill rates refreshed every business day; the data methodology explains how they're built. For the broader category, see what rate intelligence is in healthcare.

For a wider survey of options, the compensation benchmarking tools guide compares survey, crowdsourced and live data sources side by side.

Frequently asked questions