Cardiology salary update: New report examines pay gap between male and female cardiologists
Male cardiologists earn approximately 15% more than their female counterparts, according to the 2020 Medscape Cardiology Compensation Report. While men earn an average of $449,000, women earn an average of $386,000. This number is lower than the combined pay gaps for all specialists (33%) and all primary care physicians (25%).
Medscape’s annual physician compensation report, published on May 14, found that cardiologists had an annual salary of $438,000, No. 4 among all specialties. That report also included bonus information for all specialties, and cardiology had an average incentive bonus of $63,000, good for No. 6 overall.
This new cardiology-focused report provides additional details about the specialty. For instance, looking closer at that $63,000 average incentive bonus, Medscape noted that 37% of respondents achieved the full amount. And while 65% of respondents said the number of hours they work is not influenced by incentive bonuses, 35% said it leads to working increased hours—and 1% said it leads to working decreased hours. These numbers are similar to the overall percentages for physicians.
These are some other key points from the survey:
- Male cardiologists spend more time seeing patients per week (42.6 hours) than female cardiologists (36.9 hours)
- Cardiologists spend 16.9 hours per week on paperwork, putting the specialty near the top of the ranking
- Just 15% of cardiologist claims end up being denied or have to be resubmitted
- While 42% of cardiologists plan on participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, 9% plan on participating in an alternative payment model
- The high number of rules and regulations is considered the most challenging part of the job by 30% of respondents. No. 2 on that list is the long work hours
Medscape’s data included responses from more than 17,000 physicians, and 4% of all responses came from cardiologists. Data collection was complete in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the entire U.S. healthcare system, but these findings still shed plenty of light on the state of cardiology in 2020.
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.