MGMA salary data: what it covers, how to use it, and its limits
MGMA salary data is one of the most widely cited benchmarks for physician and advanced practice provider pay in the US. If you build a physician comp plan, support a fair market value review or negotiate a physician offer, someone will ask what MGMA says.
This guide explains what the data covers, how organizations use it, how to read the percentiles, how access works and where it stops being useful. It's an independent explainer: ClinicalRate is not affiliated with MGMA, and we don't reproduce MGMA figures here.
What is MGMA?
MGMA, the Medical Group Management Association, is a US professional association for leaders of medical group practices. Alongside education and advocacy, it runs some of the best-known benchmarking surveys in ambulatory healthcare, covering provider compensation, practice operations and cost.
When people say “MGMA data” they usually mean its provider compensation and production data, delivered through MGMA DataDive, its online benchmarking platform.
What MGMA compensation data covers
The provider compensation survey is collected and published on an annual cycle. Participating organizations submit data on their providers, and MGMA aggregates it into benchmarks by specialty, region, practice type and other cuts.
- Who
- Physicians across specialties, and advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
- Compensation
- Total cash compensation and its components, reported as percentiles.
- Production
- Work RVUs (wRVUs), collections and related productivity measures, so you can see pay alongside output.
- Ratios
- Compensation per wRVU and similar measures, which are central to productivity-based comp plans.
- Delivery
- DataDive, an online tool for filtering and exporting benchmarks, plus published reports.
How organizations use MGMA physician compensation data
- Comp plan design. Setting base salaries, productivity rates per wRVU and incentive targets that sit at a chosen point in the market.
- Fair market value support. Physician arrangements with hospitals face regulatory scrutiny, so health systems and valuation firms use survey percentiles as one input when documenting that pay is consistent with FMV.
- Recruiting offers. Checking a proposed offer or guarantee against the specialty and region before it goes out.
- Productivity review. Comparing a provider's wRVUs and comp-per-wRVU to peers to spot misaligned pay or capacity.
How to read MGMA percentiles
MGMA reports distributions, not single answers. The p50 (median) is the middle of the reported providers; p25 and p75 bracket the middle half; p90 marks the top tenth.
- Pair compensation and production percentiles. Pay at the 75th percentile is easier to defend when production is also around the 75th. A large gap between the two is a common FMV red flag.
- Don't mix percentiles across metrics. The p75 of compensation divided by the p75 of wRVUs is not the p75 of comp per wRVU. Use the reported ratio directly.
- Check the n. Small specialties or narrow regional cuts can rest on few respondents. Wider cuts with a larger sample are often more reliable.
- Note the effective date. Data reflects a prior year. Age it forward to your decision date, as described in our compensation benchmarking guide.
How to get access to MGMA DataDive
MGMA data is a paid product. Organizations typically buy access to DataDive modules or published reports by subscription or purchase. Organizations that participate in the survey usually receive discounted access, and MGMA membership can also affect pricing.
Pricing varies by module, organization and participation status, so check current options directly with MGMA. Before buying, confirm the specialties, regions and cuts you need are included in the module you're licensing.
Where MGMA data stops
MGMA is built for employed-provider compensation in medical groups. That leaves gaps:
- Survey lag. An annual cycle means figures describe a period that is already behind you when you use them.
- Employed-provider focus. It reflects what organizations pay their own providers, not locum tenens or other contract work. See what locum tenens is.
- Little to no nursing, allied or contingent coverage. The roles that make up most hospital staffing spend sit largely outside its scope.
- No bill rates. Survey data shows provider pay, not what a facility pays a staffing agency. See bill rate vs pay rate.
None of this is a flaw for MGMA's core job. It matters when people try to use survey data to price contingent labor, where rates can move week to week.
Alternatives and complements to MGMA data
| Source | Best for | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| SullivanCotter | Physician, APP and executive comp in health systems | Annual surveys, employed focus |
| AMGA | Physician comp and productivity in multispecialty groups | Annual survey, participant-based |
| Doximity physician compensation report | A free, public view of physician pay trends by specialty and metro | Self-reported by physicians; a report, not a benchmarking tool |
| BLS OEWS | Free wage estimates by occupation, state and metro | Annual, broad occupation codes, lags the market |
| ClinicalRate | Live pay and bill rates for 400+ clinical roles, including nursing, allied, APP and physician | Built for contingent pricing, not comp-plan governance |
Many teams keep MGMA for physician comp planning and FMV support and add live data for staffing decisions. For a side-by-side view, see ClinicalRate vs MGMA.
Frequently asked questions
What is MGMA salary data?
MGMA salary data is compensation and production benchmarking data for physicians and advanced practice providers, collected by the Medical Group Management Association through surveys of participating organizations and delivered mainly through its DataDive platform.
How often is MGMA compensation data updated?
MGMA’s provider compensation survey is collected and published on an annual cycle, so the figures reflect a prior period and are typically aged forward to the date of a decision.
What is MGMA DataDive?
DataDive is MGMA’s online benchmarking platform. It lets subscribers filter compensation, production and operational benchmarks by specialty, region, practice type and other cuts.
How much does MGMA data cost?
Pricing varies by module, organization and whether you participate in the survey or are an MGMA member. Participants typically receive discounts. Check current pricing directly with MGMA.
Does MGMA cover nurse or travel staffing pay?
MGMA focuses on employed physician and advanced practice provider compensation. It has little to no coverage of nursing, allied or contingent roles, and it does not report staffing bill rates.