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Physician Compensation Remains Flat
Although financial growth is typically a medical career goal,
gains have barely registered since 2003.
Specialty physicians’ overall compensation remained flat in 2007, (increasing just 0.31 percent, adjusted for inflation, or 3.16 percent without
inflation) according to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
Physician Compensation and Production Survey: 2008 Report Based on 2007 Data.
Among specialists, invasive cardiologists’ compensation declined (0.18 percent loss) even before inflation. However,
noninvasive cardiologists’ compensation increased 11.72 percent. Compensation for EM physicians and
hem/onc also failed to keep up with inflation. Specialists who fared better
included anesthesiologists (6.43 percent increase above inflation) and
urologists, posting a gain of 5.5 percent above inflation—compounding a similar gain in 2006. “Although primary care physicians posted modest gains in compensation as a result
of increased productivity and the reweighting of evaluation and management
codes, overall practice costs continue to rise at staggering rates,” said William F. Jessee, MD, FACMPE, president and CEO, MGMA. “The continued uncertainty of the reimbursement environment creates an untenable
situation for physician groups.” This gives physicians all the more reason to pay close attention to the
healthcare and economic policy plans of this year’s political candidates.
Women Physicians Lack Equality
While the number of women physicians practicing in the U.S. has grown, their
salaries lag behind their male peers’
According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the number of women in medicine has grown by roughly 140 percent in the past three decades.
But in an early 2008 report to the AMA Board of Trustees on “Gender Disparities in Physician Income and Advancement,” AMA Chairman Edward L. Langston reported that despite the growing numbers of
women in medicine, female physicians consistently lag behind their male
counterparts in professional advancement and annual compensation.
Data from the 2000 U.S. Census show that, on average, female physicians earn
about 63 percent of the median male physician income, which at that time was
$181,200. Dr. Langston also reported that: “The AMA identified similar differences through its Socioeconomic Monitoring
System (SMS) surveys and Patient Care Physician Surveys (PCPS). Income data
from 1990-2000 indicated that the median income of female physicians was
consistently less than male physicians, with females earning 62 percent of male
physician median income in 2000.”
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