Employee Benefits Emerge as Primary Lever for Workforce Stability

By Taylor Martin, MS

April 3, 2026

The newly released AMGA 2025 Medical Group Benefits Survey, published with input collected from the Group Physician Advisory division of The Partners Group, suggests a fundamental shift in healthcare leadership strategies. While financial pressures remain a constant challenge for most organizations, most are moving away from blunt cost-cutting and toward a targeted optimization, repositioning employee benefits as a critical strategic asset to combat workforce instability.

"It is not surprising to see that financial pressures, especially amid changing reimbursement patterns for Medicare and Medicaid, are influencing changes in strategy around total rewards," according to Matthew Wells, senior director at AMGA Consulting. "The expense for recruiting new talent is straining an already hypercompetitive landscape. Focus is shifting toward retention of provider talent, with benefits as a key part of rewards."

Groups are looking to improve and optimize employee benefits to increase retention and aid talent acquisition in an increasingly competitive market. According to the survey, 81% of organizations are focused on improving benefits as a primary recruitment lever, up from 58% in 2023. This focus on the workforce extends to retention as well. While only 56% of organizations sought to improve their benefits offerings two years ago, a staggering 87% are now actively looking to enhance benefits in the future for their current employees.

To accommodate evolving employment models, organizations are expanding benefit access by lowering Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) requirements. Today, 56% of medical groups have established a minimum benefits eligibility threshold of 0.5 FTE, up from 47% in 2023. By loosening these requirements, leaders are proactively addressing recruitment challenges and positioning their organizations as employers of choice for part-time and flexible clinical staff.

Family-focused benefits have emerged as an important future strategic investment, moving beyond discretionary perks to a key core retention tool. Between 2023 and 2025, medical groups reported a significant surge in fertility, adoption, and surrogacy assistance, as well as enhanced parental leave, specifically designed to capture clinicians during critical family-building years. Simultaneously, organizations are phasing out traditional vacation and sick leave in favor of consolidated paid time off (PTO) models, with 49% of organizations offering consolidated PTO (versus 22% in 2023). This rapid growth suggests a growing industry consensus that flexible leave structures are a primary lever for workforce satisfaction and talent acquisition.

"The 2025 data confirm a fundamental shift: Employee benefits are no longer a back-office cost center, but a primary strategic asset in addition to competitive compensation," said Tim Kelly, managing director of group physician advisory services with The Partners Group. "By moving away from blunt cost controls toward high-impact investments like family-focused support and flexible FTE thresholds, healthcare organizations are successfully aligning their benefit spend with the urgent needs of today's clinical workforce to attract and retain top talent."

The AMGA 2025 Medical Group Benefits Survey features data from more than 4,000 clinics. Representing more than 171,000 eligible employees, including more than 33,000 providers, these data points offer a comprehensive benchmark of current benefits strategies across healthcare organizations. The AMGA 2025 Medical Group Benefits Survey is published with input from the Group Physician Advisory division of The Partners Group, an AMGA Corporate Partner.

Taylor Martin, MS, is communications manager for AMGA.