ABSTRACT
When someone says that he or she is in a profession for the love of it and not for the money, this generally means that the money is probably either so low that it does not matter or so high that it is not any concern. However, if a change is proposed, the person who is the subject of the change (or the victim, depending upon the perspective) will immediately become very much engaged. A well-designed income determination process is essential. This must be something that has four factors as a basis for its development: (1) The salary and bonus must be competitive with the marketplace for the services and time commitment of the practitioner. (2) The compensation and the compensation model must have parity internally to other contracted providers. (3) The compensation must be linked to provider performance and exposed to factors in the marketplace. (4) The compensation must be related in some way to the objectives of the health system.
