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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023
| Contributor Information
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
For physicians overall, intriguing trends showed up this year — an improvement in gender-based pay disparity in primary care; a growing disillusionment with Medicare payments, as a somewhat larger share of physicians declined to take new patients on Medicare; and a general increase in pay. More than 10,000 physicians in over 29 specialties, including cardiology, told us how much they earn, how hard they work, and how they feel about their income.
In this report, gender is based on how physicians self-identified in our survey.
Some totals in this presentation do not equal 100% because of rounding.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
The top-earning specialties are virtually unchanged in the past 10 years with the exception of plastic surgery, which began its rise toward the top around 2017.
For employed physicians, compensation figures include salary, bonus, and profit-sharing contributions. For self-employed physicians, they include earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses before income tax. Only full-time salaries were included in our results.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Specialties that are more involved with procedures continued to see more volume as the pandemic eased, which helped drive up their compensation. Still, Medicare cuts and somewhat stagnant reimbursement relative to the cost of practice dragged down the income of many physicians.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Since our 2015 report, average compensation that cardiologists reported to us increased by about 35%. Unlike in some specialties, average physician compensation in cardiology didn't dip between our 2020 and 2021 reports (covering data from calendar years 2019 and 2020), when the COVID-19 pandemic began to batter the US economy.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Physician compensation overall has generally increased in recent years.
"Supply and demand is the biggest driver," says Mike Belkin, JD, divisional vice president at Merritt Hawkins, a physician recruitment firm. "Organizations understand it's not getting any easier to get good candidates, and so for the most part, physicians are getting good offers."
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
While cardiologists' income rose overall, not all practitioners enjoyed an increase. For the second straight year, cardiologists who experienced a dip less often pointed to the pandemic, and more frequently blamed other factors, than in the prior year.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Many physicians said they now work harder and longer in order to earn their incentive bonus.
"We're not seeing many employers go to a flat fixed salary," Belkin says. "There can be different types of incentive plans, but we still see the incentive bonus as a pretty important piece to physicians."
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Among doctors overall, men this year earned 19% more on average than women — still a significant disparity, but the lowest gap in 5 years. For specialists generally, men earned 27% more on average than women, a slightly smaller gap than in our two previous reports.
"Due to efforts by many, some institutions and healthcare organizations have reviewed their salary lines and recognized the discrepancies, not only between the sexes but also between new hires, which can be offered significantly more than those more senior physicians who have been working there for years and hired under a different pay structure," says Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, MD, president of the American Medical Women's Association, and professor of medicine at AU/UGA Medical Partnership, Athens, Georgia.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
In last year's report, 16% of cardiologists pointed to competition from nonphysician practitioners, 9% to telemedicine, and 3% to "minute clinics" and big box stores.
Among physicians generally, nonphysician competitors were the largest source of competition.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Thirty-five percent of cardiologists said they take on additional work inside or outside the medical profession, a somewhat greater share than in last year's report (30%).
Many physicians take side gigs to give life to their talents or get emotional relief from work, but others do so in order to bring in more money.
Physicians commented:
"I had to work three jobs at once for fear of my clinic closing."
"If I did not have income from two other medical businesses where I am the medical director, I would have to close my 100-patient solo practice."
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Cardiologists were in the middle third of all specialties in terms of how often they feel fairly paid for their talents and time. In last year's report, they also were in the middle third.
Some of the lower-paying specialties were among those that were more satisfied with their income.
"Often physicians with a high salary are part of a large organization, so there's probably some heartburn. They know what reimbursements are, but the organization takes a large part," Belkin says.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
In last year's report, 81% of cardiologists answered yes to this question. Overall, 73% of physicians felt that way, compared with the 77% who said they'd choose medicine again 5 years ago.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Eighty-eight percent of cardiologists said in last year's report that they would choose their specialty again if they had the chance.
In 10 specialties, 90% or more of their members said they would choose the same specialty, compared with eight specialties scoring that high last year. Some of the lower-earning specialties were less likely to have said they would stay in their same specialty if they had to do it over.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
For perspective, among all full-time physicians:
19% see patients less than 30 hours each week.
53% are with patients 30-40 hours per week.
16% spend 41-50 hours with patients weekly.
11% said they see patients 51 or more hours in an average week.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
As in last year's report, cardiologists said they devote 16.4 hours in an average week to these support tasks.
Paperwork and administrative chores continue to creep up and drain time from a physician's day. Studies have shown that charting into an electronic health record (EHR) system can add up to 1.5 hours per day, beyond the physician's regular workday.
Overall, physicians said they spend an average 15.5 hours per week on paperwork and administration. Of that, 9 hours are on EHR documentation.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
A somewhat smaller share of cardiologists than in last year's report (80%) said they plan to keep seeing Medicare and/or Medicaid patients. Last year, 4% of cardiologists reported they wouldn't take new Medicare patients and the same share had the same stance with Medicaid patients.
Generally, more physicians are feeling the pinch owing to reduced Medicare and Medicaid payments and are considering reducing their Medicare and Medicaid patient base. Five years ago, 71% of physicians overall said they would continue taking new Medicare patients, compared with 65% now — the lowest percentage we've seen in our compensation reports.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
In last year's report, cardiologists' responses were:
14%: Yes
26%: No, I need all payers
26%: No, it's inappropriate
35%: No, for other reasons
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Among doctors generally, there's been a steady although slow decline in fee-for-service, which has been a stated goal for a long time. According to the APM Measurement Effort, most recently, 59.5% of healthcare payments from insurers were tied to value and quality, whereas 40.5% of payments came from fee-for-service models.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Contrast these responses with the benefits that cardiologists chose most often in last year's report, which were 1) patient relationships, 2) being good at their job, and 3) making the world a better place.
Some physician comments:
"Bringing new life into this world and happiness to the family!"
"Collaborating with patients on their journey to health and maintaining wellness."
"Knowing that I am doing something most days that makes a difference in the lives of others."
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
As in last year's report, the job challenges that cardiologists most often picked were having so many rules and regulations and spending long hours at work.
Challenges for physicians overall are abundant. Whereas many feel that these issues are manageable and deal with the difficulties, others make the decision to stop being a practicing physician. In 2021, 117,000 physicians left the workforce owing to retirement, burnout, and stressors related to COVID-19.
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
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Your Income vs Your Peers': Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report 2023
Mary Lyn Koval | May 24, 2023 | Contributor Information
Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2023: Your Income Versus Your Peers'
Which specialties earn the most, and which physicians work the longest hours? Our 2023 Physician Compensation Report tells what's happening with doctors' income.Medscape Features Slideshow, Apr 2023
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Mary Lyn Koval
Editorial Consultant, Medscape Business of Medicine
Disclosure: Mary Lyn Koval has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
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