ALPHARETTA, GA – Physician compensation accounts for roughly 8 percent of the total annual healthcare costs in the U.S., according to Jackson Healthcare, an Atlanta-based healthcare staffing and technology company.

"At eight percent of total healthcare costs, if physicians worked for free we would still have a serious cost problem," said Richard Jackson, chairman and chief executive officer of Jackson Healthcare. "What this figure shows is that physician pay is not the primary contributor to healthcare costs."

According to the most recent estimate from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), overall U.S. healthcare spending in 2009 was $2.5T. CMS reports that $505 billion accounts for physician clinical services. According to data from Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), physician compensation accounts for 37 percent of total collections, or $186B (7.5 percent of total U.S. healthcare spending).

Calculating the percentage using the most recent statistics on the number of practicing physicians in the U.S. from the American Medical Association and salary figures from MGMA, annual aggregate physician salaries total $216B, or 8.6 percent of total U.S. healthcare costs. The MGMA statistics were obtained from a 2010 report using 2009 data.

To review Jackson Healthcare's other physician surveys visit JacksonHealthcare.com/Research.

About Jackson Healthcare
Founded by the healthcare innovator Richard Jackson, Jackson Healthcare serves more than two million patients in nearly one thousand hospitals each year. The Jackson family of companies provides physician and clinician staffing, anesthesia and radiology management and healthcare information technology solutions proven to improve clinical and financial outcomes, as well as increase operational efficiency. Jackson Healthcare has earned national media coverage for its physician polls and champions local and international charitable work. In addition, Jackson has been recognized as one of the largest and fastest growing staffing companies in the country by the Inc. Magazine, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Georgia Trend and Staffing Industry Analysts. For more information, visit JacksonHealthcare.com.