Cardiologist compensation declining: 3 things to know

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After rising steadily for years, overall cardiology compensation decreased by almost 8 percent from 2012 to 2013, although they remain top earners among subspecialty physicians, according to Medaxiom's 2014 Provider Compensation & Productivity Report.

Here are three things to know about cardiologist compensation, based on the Medaxiom analysis (which is based on 2013 data submitted by 134 cardiology programs representing 2,554 cardiologists nationwide) and other surveys and reports.

1. The drop in cardiology compensation from 2012 to 2013 was partly due to a decline of just under 5 percent in productivity, as measured by work relative value units, according to Joel Sauer, vice president of MedAxiom Consulting.

2. Another potential contributing factor is a slowdown in the rate of private practices transitioning to integrated models (hospital employment and professional services agreements), which have driven compensation increases in recent years.

3. However, interventional cardiologists still have some of the highest salaries among subspecialty physicians, with median compensation of $558,824 per full-time physician. Cardiologists overall had the second highest average salary in 2013 at $351,000, according to Medscape's latest physician compensation report (orthopedic surgeons, averaging $413,000, had the highest average wages).

 

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