Physician Assistant Pay Topped $113K Before Coronavirus Cut Hours And Jobs

Physician assistant compensation eclipsed $113,000 on average last year, but 2020 is likely to be a different story as reports of layoffs, furloughs and hour cuts amid the Coronavirus pandemic take their toll.

The latest statistical profile of the profession from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants shows certified PAs earned an average salary of $113,186 in 2019. That’s an increase of more than 2% from $110, 567 in 2018 and up 15% in the past six years when the average PA salary was $96,208 in 2013.

The NCCPA report comes amid the escalating push to value-based reimbursement models that emphasize outpatient care as well as the need for more health professionals, particularly in primary care fields, on the frontlines treating sick patients with the coronavirus strain Covid-19.

“The growing PA workforce is filling clinical gaps on the front lines, treating and managing patients who are battling COVID-19 but also working in all disciplines, providing essential medical and surgical care,” NCCPA President and CEO Dawn Morton-Rias said in a statement accompanying the report. “PAs are also playing key roles that help keep people healthy, reduce exposures, comfort and inform family members and educate patients on how to slow the spread of the disease.”

But the 2020 financial picture for PAs, who number more than 140,000 across the U.S., is likely going to be different when next year’s report comes out.

The American Academy of PAs Tuesday said “more than one in five PAs” or 22% have been furloughed due to COVID-19 and nearly 4% have been terminated. Meanwhile, nearly 60% have seen a reduction in hours worked and 30% surveyed said their base pay has been reduced.

“When one in five PAs are furloughed, that means we have highly trained medical providers forced on the sidelines when they could be on the front lines,” David Mittman, AAPA’s president and chair of the board said in a statement accompanying the AAPA report. “In more than half of states there are barriers preventing a surgical PA, for example, from testing and diagnosing patients in the emergency department. More states must ease these practice restrictions so that PAs can fully contribute to the COVID-19 response.”