Results are in, and analysis of ASCA’s 2015 ASC Salary and Benefits Survey report shows that most ASC salaries grew modestly since ASCA conducted its ASC compensation survey in 2012. The information also shows that ASCs are investing more in individual benefits than in 2012, and while more ASC employees are receiving bonuses than before, the amounts of the individual bonuses that ASCs paid previously have gone down.
The benefit that the largest percentage of ASCs began offering for the first time between 2012 and 2015 was tuition: 52 percent of ASCs now offer some form of tuition support compared to 28 percent in 2012. Two other benefits that saw significant increases were domestic partner health insurance and retirement benefits. The percentage of ASCs offering domestic partner health grew by 19 percent to 53 percent, and the percentage offering retirement benefits increased by 18 percent to 94 percent of the ASCs. As a median, benefits now account for nearly 15 percent of an ASC’s total compensation costs.
Salaries that increased the most since 2012 are for materials managers (up 9 percent), directors of nursing (up 6 percent) and administrator and business office managers (up 5 percent). In 2015, 84 percent of ASCs reported paying their administrator a bonus, 74 percent said that they paid one to the head of their nursing staff and 73 percent indicated that they paid one to their business office manager. Those numbers are up from 69 percent, 60 percent and 61 percent in 2012. Also in 2015, a majority, or 63 percent, of materials managers received a bonus compared to 47 percent in 2012.
This year’s survey also suggests that many ASCs have begun to recognize the value of the certification programs their staff complete. For example, 14 percent of ASCs now require their administrators to hold the Certified Administrator Surgery Center (CASC) credential, and in the ASCs that do, the median salary for that position is 19 percent higher than in other ASCs. Also, in the ASCs that indicated that they employ surgical technologists, 43 percent said that they pay their certified surgical technologists more.
More than 95 percent of the ASCs that responded to the survey indicated that they have physicians in their ownership mix. In addition, 19 percent indicated that they had a corporate partner and 25 percent indicated that a hospital owned at least part of their ASC. Multi-specialty ASCs made up 59 percent of the mix. The median length of time the ASCs reported being in business was 12 years, the median number of full-time employees was 19 and the median number of cases reported annually was 3,707.
ASCA’s 2015 ASC Salary and Benefits Survey is an entirely online tool that collected data on 20 ASC job positions, employee benefits and ASC demographics. Nearly 850 ASCs participated.
Like the survey, the final report is also available online. ASCs that completed more than 50 percent of the survey can access the report for free. Others can purchase the online report at www.ascassociation.org/salarysurvey. Dynamic comparison, filtering and reporting features built into the online tool allow users to perform their own analysis of the data.
This report is recommended to all ASCs working to develop compensation packages that will attract and retain top talent. ASCA will conduct the survey again in 2017 to build on the data in this report and identify any new trends that develop over time. If you have any questions about how to access or use this new resource, please contact Brian Stevenson at 703-636-0673.
William Prentice is the chief executive officer of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association.
