COVID-19 hit cardiology hard in 2020, but salaries stayed competitive
Production was way down for cardiology in 2020, according to a new report published by MedAxiom. Compensation for cardiologists and other cardiovascular specialists, however, made it through the year without any significant drops.
The company’s ninth annual Cardiovascular Provider Compensation and Production Survey Report includes data from 188 different U.S. cardiovascular groups representing nearly 5,000 healthcare providers.
One of the report’s biggest themes was the continued impact of COVID-19.
“Many aspects of that 12-month period made it extraordinary, but none were bigger than the global coronavirus pandemic,” according to the report. “MedAxiom reported extensively on the impact of the pandemic on the cardiovascular community, with survey data collected in real-time showing volume declines of up to 50% in Spring 2020 then slowly, but never fully, recovering. Impacting the 2020 data were huge amounts of federal stimulus monies pumped into struggling American businesses, including cardiovascular groups.”
According to the report, the median number of wRVUs per FTE cardiologist was 9,145 in 2020, down significantly from 10,455 in 2019. In April 2020, as COVID-19 was turning the entire U.S. healthcare system on its head, that number was just 493—less than half of the January 2020 number of 1,036.
Compensation, meanwhile, “fared quite well” in 2020. The median total compensation for cardiologists at private practices, for example, increased from $578,570 to $589,032. The median total compensation for cardiologists at integrated practices, meanwhile, dropped from $643,815 to $612,216—but the report’s authors didn’t see that drop as particularly significant.
“Integrated physicians fell back in 2020, but still reported the second highest median total in five years,” according to the report. “These compensation data are even more surprising given that total production … actually fell for both private and integrated groups.”
Looking at subspecialties in cardiology, electrophysiology (EP) and interventional cardiology “continue to outpace other cardiologists for median compensation.”
The median total compensation numbers per FTE in 2020 were:
- $617,409 for private EP and $671,730 for integrated EP
- $669,229 for private interventional cardiology and $653,360 for integrated interventional cardiology
- $587,881 for private invasive cardiology and $586,419 for integrated invasive cardiology
- $420,153 for private general cardiology and $565,098 for integrated general cardiology
- $554,945 for integrated advanced heart failure (no data was available on private advanced heart failure)
The full MedAxiom report, which includes 45 pages of data and information, is available on the company’s website.
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.