Doctors really pull in the money for hospitals – to the tune of $2.4 million a year per facility on average, according to a survey of hospital CFOs by physician search firm Merritt Hawkins. Think that's a lot? You can probably expect it to grow. The latest figures represent a 52 percent increase over 2016 data. Specialists in particular are significant revenue generators, the CFOS say, with cardiovascular surgeons, invasive cardiologists, neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons all generating more than $3 million in revenue each per year. "The value of physician care is not only related to the quality of patient outcomes," says Travis Singleton, Merritt Hawkins executive vice president. "Physicians continue to drive the financial health and viability of hospitals, even in a health care system that is evolving towards value-based payments." Non-specialists can pull it in, too – with family physicians generating an average of $2.1 million in net revenue annually for their affiliated hospitals, and general internists generating nearly $2.7 million on average. Such professions are also increasingly finding themselves on the hospital payroll--just 31.4 percent of physicians identified as independent in 2018, compared to 48.5 percent in 2012. The shift, note authors, is likely due to the growth of new delivery and reimbursement models such as Accountable Care Organizations. The CFOs were also asked about net revenue derived from patient hospital admissions, tests, treatments, prescriptions and procedures performed or ordered by physicians. The average length of inpatient stay at a hospital may be flat or even down in recent years, but the cost per stay continues to rise – one reason why revenues generated by doctors are so high, Singleton says. Hospital outpatient visits are also getting more costly – and more popular, as the number of visits has more than tripled since 1975. Then there's the aging baby boomers utilizing more health care services, with increased "patient acuity" – the amount of nursing required per visit. The report notes that more than 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day, aging into a population that currently represents just 14 percent of the population but generates 34 percent of health care spending. "Demographics are our destiny," Singleton says. "New delivery models that promote prevention, population health and fee-for-value are laudable innovations but they don't change the basic facts. People get older and require more medical care, with much of it ordered by or directly provided by physicians." Hospital CFOs can also benefit from the survey's cost/benefits analysis of which type of doctor generates the best return on investment per the salary they make. For example, family physicians average a starting salary of $241,000, while generating nine times that much in hospital revenue. Orthopedic surgeons average $533,000 in starting salary, while generating six times that much in hospital revenue. "Primary care physicians such as family physicians represent an excellent return on investment, which is one reason they have been our number one search for the last 12 years," Singleton says.