What is the average revenue per provider?
There is no single average: revenue per provider depends on specialty, and the one broad survey that reports it, MGMA's, is a paid product. The published figures you can check are narrower. FTI Consulting's 2019 benchmarks put median revenue per FTE physician at $1.3 million in medical dermatology and $1.8 million in cosmetic dermatology, and in a Sorso calculation from CMS's 2024 provider-level data the median ophthalmologist received $167,145 in Medicare payments and the median orthopedic surgeon $96,684, from Medicare alone.
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Definition
Revenue per provider is total practice collections divided by full-time-equivalent (FTE) revenue-generating providers (physicians, NPs, PAs, dentists, PTs).
The detail
Revenue per provider is the cleanest single benchmark of provider productivity, but the right comparison depends on specialty. MGMA's Provider Compensation and Production Survey is the industry reference for median collections per FTE physician by specialty, but its figures sit behind DataDive and we will not reproduce numbers we cannot link you to. What MGMA has published openly shows how wide the spread is: in its 2019 analysis of 141 multispecialty groups, groups staffed at about 5.0 support staff per FTE physician reported total medical revenue per FTE physician anywhere from $250,000 to $1,800,000. Specialty figures that are public include FTI Consulting's 2019 dermatology benchmarks ($1.3 million median revenue per FTE physician in medical dermatology, $1.8 million in cosmetic) and CMS's provider-level Medicare data, which in 2024 put the median Medicare payment at $167,145 per ophthalmologist, $96,684 per orthopedic surgeon and $75,349 per podiatrist (Sorso calculation; Medicare only, not total revenue). Mid-level providers generate less revenue than physicians but at lower compensation, and MGMA's 2017 cost survey found that practices with 0.41 or more non-physician providers per FTE physician earned more revenue after operating cost than those with 0.20 or fewer. The biggest drivers of revenue per provider are schedule density, no-show rate, and complete billing of every encounter, not provider speed.
MGMA Provider Compensation and Production Survey is the industry standard source for specialty-specific productivity benchmarks.
Source: MGMA Compensation Data
In MGMA's 2019 analysis of 141 multispecialty groups, those staffed near 5.0 support staff per FTE physician reported total medical revenue per FTE physician from $250,000 to $1,800,000, a sevenfold spread.
Source: MGMA, Data Mine: The secret of staffing success (2019)
FTI Consulting's 2019 benchmarks put median revenue per FTE physician at $1.3 million in medical dermatology and $1.8 million in cosmetic dermatology.
Sorso calculation from CMS's CY2024 provider-level data (Medicare payments only): median $167,145 per ophthalmologist, $96,684 per orthopedic surgeon and $75,349 per podiatrist.
Source: CMS, Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners by Provider (CY2024)
What this means for clinic owners
From Sorso
Revenue per provider is a productivity metric, not an effort metric. Providers who appear less busy often generate more revenue because their schedules are tighter and their billing capture is cleaner. Measure outcomes, not hours.
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What is the average cost per patient encounter?
The clearest published figure comes from U.S. Physical Therapy: $86.15 of adjusted clinic operating cost per visit in 2025, of which $61.93 is salaries and related costs, so labor is 72% of the cost of a PT visit. On the revenue side, Concentra reports $147.42 of revenue per visit at its occupational health centers. Both are large multi-site operators, so read them as the economics of delivery at scale, then run the same arithmetic on your own trailing twelve months.
How much should I pay my practice manager?
BLS reports a median annual wage of $123,860 for medical and health services managers (May 2025), with the bottom 10 percent under $73,390 and the top 10 percent above $224,340. Outpatient settings sit below that headline median: BLS puts offices of physicians at $105,770 and outpatient care centers at $116,060, so budget from those rather than from the all-industry figure.
What is a good profit margin for a dental practice?
A healthy general dental practice keeps 35 to 45 percent of collections for the owner (pre-tax profit plus owner pay). That is a Sorso estimate: it is what remains after the 55 to 65 percent overhead range ZenOne cites from Overjet's 2025 data, and Overjet's national median overhead of about 62 percent leaves about 38 percent. Pay the owner a market salary for the dentistry and the normalized EBITDA margin is lower, and it rises with practice size.
What is a good overhead ratio for medical practices?
A good overhead ratio depends on the specialty: 55 to 65 percent of collections in general dentistry, with a national median near 62 percent (ZenOne, citing Overjet's 2025 data), 72.9 percent of net revenue in medical dermatology and 75.1 percent in cosmetic (FTI Consulting), and 80.8 percent in outpatient physical therapy (U.S. Physical Therapy's FY2025 10-K). An 80.8 percent ratio is normal in physical therapy and would be far too high in dentistry, which is why a single cross-specialty target is worse than none.
What is a good staff-to-provider ratio?
There is no single good ratio, because the published benchmarks count staff differently. AMGA's 2024 staffing survey of medical groups puts the median at 2.15 clinic staff FTEs per provider FTE, counting physicians and advanced practice clinicians as providers. MGMA counts total support staff per FTE physician instead: its analysis of 141 multispecialty groups found a median of 5.0, and physician-owned groups staff more heavily than hospital-owned ones.
When should I add a second clinic location?
Add a second location when the first one is full, profitable on normalized numbers and able to run without you every day, and when you can pay for the build-out and the months before the new site collects cash without touching your operating reserve.
What financial KPIs should I track for my clinic?
The core 8 financial KPIs every clinic should track monthly are revenue, EBITDA, net collection rate, days in AR, denial rate, revenue per provider, overhead ratio, and rolling 13-week cash forecast.
What is a reasonable patient no-show rate for an outpatient clinic?
There is no single reasonable rate, because published no-show rates vary widely: a 2024 systematic review of outpatient scheduling notes rates between 12% and 42% across studies, and around 50% in some general outpatient clinics. Where your practice should sit depends on specialty and payer mix; in rural outpatient behavioral health, for example, a 2023 JAMA Network Open study measured 13% for in-person and 17% for telehealth appointments. Whatever the number, the fix is rarely a single tactic; it is a stacked system of reminders, deposits, overbooking discipline, and patient selection.
What is a fair productivity bonus structure for outpatient clinic providers?
A fair productivity bonus for outpatient providers ties incremental pay to a measurable production metric (personal collections, wRVUs, or net visit revenue) above a defined threshold, with the threshold and rate calibrated so total compensation lands within MGMA benchmarks for the specialty at expected production. The share paid above threshold, whether a percentage of collections or a per-wRVU rate, is often capped or tiered to protect practice margin.
What does switching EHR systems actually cost in lost clinical productivity?
Studies that measured a drop after an EHR go-live found visits or work RVUs roughly 8% to 15% lower, with a learning period of about six months, though some practices were still below their old volume a year or two later and one study found no drop at all. Five otolaryngologists at UC Irvine averaged 121 clinic visits and 284 work RVUs a month in the year after the change, against 132 and 334 before, and a Duke orthopaedic clinic was back to its old labor cost per visit after six months. The revenue impact is lost visits times your revenue per visit, and none of it appears in the vendor's quote.
How many patients does an average primary care physician see per day?
A common reference point is about 20 patients a day: physicians in The Physicians Foundation's 2014 survey of 20,088 doctors reported seeing approximately 20 patients per day and working an average of 53 hours a week. That survey covered all specialties and is more than a decade old, so treat it as a rough anchor. Volume alone is a misleading metric; payer mix, visit complexity, panel size, support staff, and documentation burden drive whether a given schedule is sustainable or a path to burnout.
How do work RVU productivity targets compare across medical specialties?
Work RVU (wRVU) productivity benchmarks vary widely by specialty, with primary care sitting well below the procedural specialties. The benchmarks that matter for compensation and capacity planning come from specialty-specific MGMA, AMGA, or SullivanCotter survey data, not generic averages.
How much does a dental practice owner make?
A general dentist who owns a practice earned $228,980 on average in 2025 and $199,140 at the median, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute's Survey of Dental Practice. Specialist owners averaged $372,460 (median $259,550). Employed general dentists averaged $164,510, so on these figures owning a practice added about $64,000 a year on average and about $34,000 at the median.
Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.
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