Survey: Cardiologists’ pay increases, ranks No. 3 among specialties
Cardiologists earn an average of $423,000 annually, according to the 2018 Medscape Cardiologist Compensation Report, up from $410,000 in last year’s survey.
That salary puts cardiology third among all specialties, behind only plastic surgery ($501,000) and orthopedics ($497,000). Medscape surveyed more than 20,000 physicians across 29 specialties for its overall compensation report and dove into the responses of cardiologists for more detailed information on the specialty.
Here are some highlights from the cardiology report:
- Foreign-trained cardiologists outearned their U.S.-trained counterparts $443,000 to $416,000.
- Self-employed cardiologists earned $483,000 while employed physicians earned $403,000. The report authors presumed employed physicians—who made up 73 percent of those surveyed—traded a higher salary for a steadier income and less responsibility with running a business.
- Men made significantly more money than women, as has been the case in each year’s survey. Full-time male cardiologists reported average earnings of $442,000, while full-time women earned $280,000.
- 65 percent of cardiologists feel they are fairly compensated.
- Cardiologists ranked near the top of all specialties in participation in Quality Payment Programs. More than half (56 percent) said they expected to participate in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System while 16 percent said they expected to participate in Alternative Payment Models.
- Half of cardiologists reported seeing patients for at least 46 hours per week, with 10 percent saying they see patients for more than 65 hours each week. Seventy-three percent of doctors said they spend at least 13 minutes with each patient.
- Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of cardiologists said they spend at least 10 hours per week on paperwork and administration, with 32 percent reportedly spending at least 20 hours.
- Too many rules and regulations was frequently cited as the most challenging part of the job (34 percent), followed by working with the electronic health record (18 percent) and working long hours (17 percent).
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.