The President's Recommended Budget for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2012 (available at http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/budget/BlueBooks.html) includes on page 14 the transfer of $10 million to the College of Medicine, up from $8.792 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. The explanation for this increase is given on page 13: "The $1.2 million increase in Transfer to the College of Medicine is due to additional funding for physician income guarantees."
What is a physician income guarantee? The Medical College faculty teach and some are also affiliated with the University of Toledo Physicians, LLC, which is a clinical practice plan. In addition to the compensation they receive for teaching, the LLC group members are guaranteed a certain level of income for their clinical work for a contractually specified period of time. For example in one 2009 contract, the salary for the position of Associate Professor is $75,000 with a $75,000 stipend for serving as the chief of a particular hospital unit. In addition, this same contract states: "During the period of Nov. 5, 2009 through Nov. 4, 2012 your salary per annum from the practice plan will not be less than $400,000...You may be eligible to receive from the practice plan per annum incentive compensation of 70% of monies collected after your net collections exceed your total practice plan expenses, which include professional liability insurance; billing and collections..." So over a three-year period, this individual will collect a minimum of $1.65 million.
According to documents received from the University, the UT physician income guarantees as of September 2011 range from $39,000 to $451,525. The total amount of physician income guarantees for 2011 is more than $6.5 million for 25 individuals, an average of $260,826 per person.
The physician income guarantees for 2012 have been increased by nearly 20% in funding while the academic side of our institution is regularly squeezed for faculty and staff even as tuition and fees for students continue to increase.
The 2012 budget allocates $3 million for a new faculty hiring plan for the entire academic enterprise, but it is with the stipulation that "this hiring plan will depend on the success of the academic program review and the faculty work-load increase," (2012 Budget, page 5). In other words, the $3 million is only contingent and not a guarantee.
When The University of Toledo and the Medical school merged in 2006, we were promised a firewall between the academic budget and the hospital. However, Dr. Scott Scarborough, Senior Vice President for Finance & Administration, has stated on one or more occasions that the academic enterprise and the hospital share the liabilities, but not the resources.
Dr. Jacobs and the BOT have improved the human condition for 25 physicians at a cost of $6.5 million in unconditional funding. Less than half that amount is contingently allocated for the entire academic enterprise.
