Survey Identification & Purchasing
The right survey behind every number.
No single survey covers VHA. Physician pay lives in SullivanCotter and MGMA; allied-health and technician roles in ECRI; nurse locality pay is anchored by statute to BLS OEWS. The library maps which source prices each occupation — the foundation every downstream percentile rests on.
Coverage matrix
Which survey prices which family.
Most families are covered by two or more sources — the redundancy that makes a blended, defensible market reference possible.
| Survey | Phys | Nurse | APP | Pharm | Behav | Allied | Diag | Pt Care | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SullivanCotter Physician Compensation & Productivity Survey | |||||||||
SullivanCotter Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Survey | |||||||||
SullivanCotter Manager & Executive Compensation Survey | |||||||||
MGMA Provider Compensation & Productivity Report | |||||||||
AMGA Medical Group Compensation & Productivity Survey | |||||||||
ADA Health Policy Institute Survey of Dental Practice / Dental Compensation | |||||||||
ECRI (formerly Total Compensation Solutions) Clinical & Allied Health / Technician Wage Survey | |||||||||
Mercer Integrated Health Network Compensation Survey | |||||||||
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS) | |||||||||
HSG-administered (per facility) Facility Local Labor-Market Surveys | |||||||||
Economic Research Institute (ERI) Geographic Assessor / Salary Assessor |
The source library
Eleven sources, each with its scope, sample size, refresh cadence, and VHA use.
The license badge is each source's acquisition model — how HSG would license or purchase it for this engagement under Task 1, not a current holding.
SullivanCotter
Physician Compensation & Productivity Survey
The healthcare market standard for physician cash compensation, wRVUs, and pay-to-production ratios.
Sample
≈215,400 physicians · 541 organizations
Refresh
Annual (mid-year)
VHA use
Anchors §7431 physician Market Pay panels by specialty and tier.
SullivanCotter
Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Survey
NP, PA, CRNA, CNM, and clinical pharmacist compensation by specialty and setting.
Sample
≈190,000 APPs
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Benchmarks NP/PA/CRNA and clinical-pharmacist hybrid special rates.
SullivanCotter
Manager & Executive Compensation Survey
Nurse leadership, service-line chiefs, and health-system executive roles.
Sample
≈2,500 organizations
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Nurse Manager (Nurse IV–V) and Health System leadership benchmarking.
MGMA
Provider Compensation & Productivity Report
Largest provider dataset; strong on group-practice and procedural specialties.
Sample
≈350,000 providers · 60,000 practices
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Second market reference for §7431 panels; blends with SullivanCotter.
AMGA
Medical Group Compensation & Productivity Survey
Integrated medical-group compensation across 197 specialties.
Sample
≈190,000 providers · 459 groups
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Third leg of the three-survey blend used for FMV defensibility.
ADA Health Policy Institute
Survey of Dental Practice / Dental Compensation
General and specialty dentist earnings by region.
Sample
National dental practitioner panel
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Benchmarks VA Dental Service §7431 pay.
ECRI (formerly Total Compensation Solutions)
Clinical & Allied Health / Technician Wage Survey
Deep coverage of allied-health, therapy, lab, imaging, and technician roles.
Sample
≈1,800 hospitals & health systems
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Primary source for Title 38 Hybrid Special Salary Rate (SSR) requests.
Mercer
Integrated Health Network Compensation Survey
Administrative, IT/informatics, HR, finance, and operations roles in health systems.
Sample
≈1,400 healthcare organizations
Refresh
Annual
VHA use
Benchmarks Title 5 health-administration and informatics occupations.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS)
Authoritative metro-area wage estimates by SOC code — the legal anchor for VA nurse locality pay.
Sample
≈1.1M establishments · all U.S. metro areas
Refresh
Twice yearly (May / national)
VHA use
Statutory anchor for §7451 nurse locality surveys; 30-day facility review on release.
HSG-administered (per facility)
Facility Local Labor-Market Surveys
Primary-source wage collection from non-VA hospitals in each facility's labor market.
Sample
5–12 comparator employers per facility labor market
Refresh
Annual per facility (§7451 requirement)
VHA use
The §7451 Nurse Locality Pay Survey itself — HSG collects, validates, and reports.
Economic Research Institute (ERI)
Geographic Assessor / Salary Assessor
Cost-of-labor and geographic differentials across 9,000+ U.S. localities.
Sample
National geographic-differential model
Refresh
Quarterly
VHA use
Builds and validates the geographic-differential layer (Task 3).
Survey scopes, sample sizes, refresh cadences, and coverage mappings are illustrative — modeled from public knowledge of the healthcare compensation survey market. Production benchmarking draws on the survey licenses HSG acquires for the engagement, under each publisher's terms.