Primary care visits per physician fell 2.2% in 2025, which AMGA puts at roughly 60 to 90 fewer visits per doctor for the year. The figure comes from AMGA's 2026 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey of 451 medical groups. Work RVUs per visit rose from 1.86 to 1.94 in the same data, so primary care wRVUs still grew 2.0%.
What AMGA measured
AMGA's 2026 survey covers 451 medical groups and health systems that employ nearly 188,000 providers, across more than 190 specialties. The compensation and productivity figures describe 2025. HIT Consultant reported the release on June 26, 2026, and Marit Health published a longer breakdown on September 17, 2026.
Across all specialties, AMGA found that physician work RVUs rose 2.4% and net patient visit volume rose 2.0%. Advanced practice clinician (NP and PA) productivity rose 3.0%. Primary care went the other way on volume: net patient visits fell 2.2%, while primary care wRVUs rose 2.0%.
The 2.2% drop is a percentage, so the visit count depends on the base. AMGA's range of 60 to 90 fewer visits per physician implies a base of about 2,700 to 4,100 visits a year. That base is our arithmetic (60 divided by 0.022, and 90 divided by 0.022), not an AMGA figure.
AMGA members are medical groups and health systems, so the 451 respondents skew toward larger organizations than a typical independent practice. The survey reports medians across groups. A single practice with a small panel can sit well above or below them, and one physician's leave of absence can move a three-physician practice's visit count by more than 2.2%.
Why wRVUs rose while visits fell
AMGA reports that average primary care wRVUs per visit rose from 1.86 to 1.94. That is an increase of 0.08 wRVUs, or 4.3% (our arithmetic). The two changes roughly cancel in the math: 97.8% of last year's visits multiplied by 104.3% of the per-visit wRVUs gives 102.0%, which matches the 2.0% rise in primary care wRVUs.
The survey reports the movement but the summaries do not state a cause. A different visit mix, longer visits and changed coding would each produce the same result, and the AMGA figures do not separate them. A practice that wants to know which one applies to its own numbers has to look at its own E/M code distribution.
AMGA Consulting president Fred Horton said that "approximately half of the increases have been supported by ongoing growth in wRVU production." On stagnant reimbursement he said, "In a marketplace with stagnant reimbursement, this is necessary." The pay data below shows the size of that gap.
Pay grew faster than productivity
AMGA reports that overall APC compensation rose 4.1% in the 2026 survey, against 3.0% growth in APC net wRVU productivity. The same pattern holds for physicians, where pay growth ran ahead of wRVU growth.
AMGA's overall median clinical compensation rose 4.3% in the 2026 survey, against 4.9% in the 2025 survey. The 4.3% compares with the 2.4% rise in wRVUs, a gap of 1.9 percentage points. In primary care the pay increase was 3.7%, against 2.0% for wRVUs, a gap of 1.7 points. Marit Health reproduced the year-by-year series for each group.
| Group | Median pay change, 2026 survey | Median pay change, 2025 survey |
|---|---|---|
| All clinicians | 4.3% | 4.9% |
| Primary care | 3.7% | 5.7% |
| Medical specialties | 4.3% | 4.0% |
| Surgical specialties | 3.2% | 3.7% |
| Radiology, anesthesiology, pathology | 5.7% | 5.1% |
| APPs (NP and PA) | 4.1% | 4.3% |
Source: AMGA 2026 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey, 451 groups, as reported by Marit Health on September 17, 2026.
Primary care pay growth in the same series ran 3.0% in the 2022 survey, 6.0% in 2023, 3.6% in 2024 and 5.7% in 2025 before the 3.7% in 2026.
Median pay for the main primary care specialties
Marit Health lists median 2026 compensation for family medicine at $342,411, up 3.7%. Internal medicine sits at $361,426, up 3.9%. General pediatrics is at $305,435, up 3.5%.
Orthopedic surgery has the highest median on the list at $751,350, but its pay grew only 0.3%. Gastroenterology is at $656,500, up 3.6%. Hematology and medical oncology is at $591,080, up 6.2%. General surgery is at $530,000, up 4.5%.
For APPs in primary care, Marit lists primary care nurse practitioners at $149,178, up 4.8%, and primary care physician assistants at $156,894, up 1.3%.
Surgical and medical specialty APPs show a wider spread. Surgical physician assistants are at $159,659, up 6.2%, and surgical nurse practitioners are at $149,614, up 7.3%. Medical specialty nurse practitioners are at $147,269, up 4.1%, while medical specialty physician assistants are at $146,873, down 1.0%. HIT Consultant reports that the NP and PA pay differential in medical specialties fell from over $7,000 to under $400.
What to compare against your own panel
A practice can run the same two checks on its own data. First, count completed visits per physician for 2025 and the prior year, and compare the change with AMGA's 2.2% drop. Second, divide total wRVUs by visits and compare the result with AMGA's 1.86 and 1.94.
As an illustration, a physician with 3,000 visits a year who sees 2.2% fewer patients loses 66 visits. At 1.94 wRVUs per visit that is about 128 wRVUs. This is arithmetic on a round example, not a survey result.
If visits fall and wRVUs per visit stay flat, wRVU production falls by the same 2.2%. AMGA's 2025 data shows that the average primary care group offset the drop through a 4.3% rise in wRVUs per visit.
Sources
- HIT Consultant, AMGA 2026 Provider Compensation and Productivity Survey, June 26, 2026
- Marit Health, Clinician Compensation Rose 4.3%: 2026 AMGA Benchmarks, September 17, 2026
- AMGA, 2026 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey charts, June 2026
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