Cardiologist compensation much higher at hospitals and health systems than private practices—and the gap is widening
The median compensation for integrated cardiologists in the United States was $645,388 in 2022, according to a new in-depth survey from MedAxiom, an American College of Cardiology (ACC) company. That represents an increase of nearly 4% compared to 2021, when the median compensation was $621,596.
Meanwhile, the median compensation for private cardiologists appears to be trending in the opposite direction. It was $588,272 in 2022, down 2.7% compared to the $604,652 recorded in 2021. As a result of this shift, integrated cardiologists now earn more than $57,000 more per year than private cardiologists. This represents a much wider gap in pay than MedAxiom reported in 2020 ($23,000) and 2021 ($17,000).
When grouping cardiologists by different subspecialties, the survey revealed that electrophysiologists earn the highest median compensation ($714,976), followed closely be interventional cardiologists ($709,714). Other specialties included in the breakdown included invasive cardiologists ($662,006), general/noninvasive cardiologists ($585,849) and advanced heart failure specialists ($575,000).
Key details about the Cardiovascular Provider Compensation and Production Survey Report
MedAxiom’s 11th Cardiovascular Provider Compensation and Production Survey Report includes input from nearly 6,000 cardiovascular providers, including 2,894 full-time cardiologists and another 1,836 full-time cardiovascular advanced practice providers (APPs).
The median size of programs responding to the survey was 11.6 full-time equivalent (FTE) physicians. For integrated cardiology groups, the median size was 9.3 FTEs. For private programs, it was 19.1 FTEs.
Also, 89% of the included programs are integrated—meaning they are owned by a hospital or health system—and the other 11% are private. Those percentages are unchanged compared to 2021, but radically different from 2011, when just 48% of cardiology programs were integrated.
In addition, 43% of programs included in the survey have 10 or fewer FTEs. Twenty-two percent of programs have 11 to 20 FTEs, 13% have 21 to 30 FTEs, 12% have 31 to 50 FTEs and another 10% have 51 or more FTEs on staff.
All data represented in the survey are from 2022.
Cardiologist production in 2022
Production in cardiology was “relatively stable” in 2022, according to the report’s authors. Electrophysiologists and interventional cardiologists saw a slight dip in work relative value units (wRVUs) compared to 2021, but invasive cardiologists saw a small increase and advanced heart failure specialists experienced a wRVU increase of 9.1%.
It is noteworthy that electrophysiologists only saw that slight dip in production considering the considerable cuts CMS made to the wRVUs associated with ablation procedures.
Comparing pay between male and female cardiologists
The survey also examined differences between male and female cardiologists in the United States. While men earned a higher median compensation ($628,601 vs. $559,174) and produced more median wRVUs (10,540 vs. 8,417) than women, women earned nearly 10% more in median total compensation per wRVU than man.
The authors wrote that night/weekend call responsibilities are likely the primary reason for these differences between male and female cardiologists. Male cardiologists are more likely to participate in these calls by a significant margin.
Trends in cardiac imaging volumes
When it came to echocardiography and nuclear SPECT, which MedAxiom described as cardiology’s two “staple” medical imaging studies, both saw very small drops in volume in 2022 compared to 2021.
“The reported median for nuclear SPECT continued a multi-year downward trend with a slight drop of 3.3%; such a small decrease would fall within the margin of error for statistical relevance,” the report’s authors wrote.
Both cardiac PET and cardiac MRI exams saw a similar small decrease in volume in 2022. Cardiac CTA, meanwhile, saw a very slight increase.
Ninety-three percent of cardiology programs were offering echocardiograms in 2022, which is unchanged from 2021. There was a slight dip in the number of programs offering nuclear SPECT in 2021 compared to 2022, but cardiac PET, cardiac MRI and cardiac CTA all saw slight increases.
View the full MedAxiom report for much more
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the contents of MedAxiom’s 57-page report. Click here to access the entire document for free as a PDF.
Also, read our coverage of the 2022 version of this report here.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.