2012 Salary Survey Results
CMs more appreciated but budgets are tight
Salaries are up, But so are the hours
Healthcare reform initiatives such as value-based purchasing and readmission reduction, and a growing emphasis on quality have heightened awareness of case management, says Toni Cesta, RN, PhD, FAAN, senior vice president, operational efficiency and capacity management at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, and partner and consultant in Dallas-based Case Management Concepts.
Those factors have also increased appreciation for the role of case managers who, as part of an interdisciplinary team, can help meet the challenges facing hospitals today.
“We have seen many hospitals revisiting their case management infrastructures in an effort to ensure that they are strategically responding to all the challenges that health care reform has placed before them,” Cesta says.
As the need grows for case managers across the continuum of care, and as staffing ratios improve, there will be more demand for qualified case managers in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, Cesta says.
B.K. Kizziar, RNC, CCM, CLCP, a case management consultant based in Southlake, TX, reports that many hospital administrators are just beginning to understand the impact case management can make on the bottom line. “As awareness grows of the value of case management, salaries will also increase,” she predicts.
But it hasn’t happened yet, she adds. As she works with hospitals around the country, Kizziar hasn’t seen much change in salaries in the past several years and doesn’t expect to see increases until the economy improves. “Hospitals can’t afford to give big raises to case managers in this economy,” she says.
Beverly Cunningham, MS, RN, vice president of clinical performance improvement at Medical City Dallas Hospital and a partner and consultant with Dallas-based Case Management Concepts, adds that pay raises and benefits have stayed about the same in her area over the past few years.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of turnover. I don’t see hospitals hiring a lot of additional case managers, but case managers aren’t being laid off either,” Kizziar adds.
The majority of case managers responding to the Hospital Case Management 2012 salary survey report making more money last year, but they also say they are putting in long hours.
Most of the respondents (88%) to the 2012 salary survey report that they got a raise last year. Just 12% reported no raise and only one respondent got a pay cut. At the same time, more than 89% of respondents report working more than 40 hours a week, with 23% putting in more than 50 hours.
The majority of raises (67%) were in the 1% to 3% range, with 6% reporting raises of 11% or more. About 68% of respondents report receiving salaries of $80,000 a year or more, with the majority of respondents (25%) reporting an income in the $80,000 to $89,999 range and 31% reporting salaries of $100,000 or more.
Our readers are well-educated. Among respondents to the salary survey, 80% have a bachelor’s degree or higher and 34% have completed a postgraduate degree.
The majority of respondents to the salary survey are older and experienced case managers. More than 75% have worked in case management for 10 years or longer, and 15% have 25 or more years experience as a case manager. More than 70% of respondents have worked in the healthcare field for 25 years or longer.
More than 66% of respondents are over age 50, while 12% report being 61 years or older. Only 11% report being age 40 or younger.
Case managers have to make the case for increasing staff, and that means coming up with ways to show how they can affect the hospital’s bottom line, using hard data, not anecdotal information, Kizziar says.
“Case managers have historically been woefully shy about demonstrating their value using hard data, and they have never been appreciated for what they do in the hospital setting. People in hospital management want to see data and statistics, not anecdotes, and in many situations, case managers haven’t provided it,” she says.
While the role of case management is becoming recognized by providers across the continuum, the demand for case managers may make it more difficult to attract qualified case managers to all venues of care in the future, Cunningham predicts.
If case management departments don’t staff adequately with clear job descriptions, policies, and procedures, clerical support staff, and case management software, they are likely to lose staff to other organizations that do, Cesta adds.
Her advice to case management directors: “Be sure your staff have the tools they need to be successful.”
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