What’s an expert worth? With all those different specialties, levels of expertise and varying jobs - you know, panels, papers or presentations - how do you determine what they should be paid? After all, fair market value is something the government cares about.

A report by Cutting Edge Info notes that in order to remain compliant, some companies have moved away from paying flat fees. Instead, they try to determine the amount of time and work required for each contractual agreement with a so-called thought leader. And so more companies are offering an hourly rate, and the end result varies depending upon the work. This chart offers some insight. (Please click to enlarge).

Small companies pay the highest minimum and maximum hourly rate for a thought leader at $340 and $784 an hour. Mid-sized companies, on average, pay a higher minimum than large companies, at $279 versus $261 an hour but, according to the firm’s survey, pay almost $100 less at the maximum. Yet, according to the medians of both data sets, both company sizes pay a maximum rate of $400 an hour.

Third-party companies, meanwhile, pay the least overall, with a range of $181 to $321 an hour. Consistently throughout the report, the data show that third-party companies pay less in hourly and additional fees because often they provide the service of finding physicians consulting activities, instead of the physicians contacting the companies themselves, according to Cutting Edge.