Heart surgeons now earn more than $1 million per year
Compensation is up considerably for cardiac surgeons in the United States, according to a new report from MedAxiom, an American College of Cardiology company. In fact, they now earn more than $1 million per year on average, the first time any cardiovascular specialty has surpassed that threshold in the report’s history.
The 2026 Cardiovascular Provider Compensation and Production Survey includes feedback from cardiologists, cardiac surgeons other cardiology professionals. More than 6,000 U.S. physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) contributed survey responses to MedAxiom for the development of this report. Representatives from 97 different surgical programs participated, with 55% coming from the South, 27% coming from the Midwest and another 9% coming from both the West and the Northeast.
All numbers reflect 2025 data.
A big year for cardiac surgeon compensation
Cardiac surgeons saw their median total compensation come in at $1,045,000, up nearly 11% compared to the previous year. No cardiovascular specialty has ever had its median compensation reach $1 million in the history of MedAxiom’s annual compensation and production surveys.
Back in 2022, the median total compensation for cardiac surgeons dropped more than 9%. Since then, however, it has been consistently getting higher year after year.
Compensation also increased for vascular surgeons—but not by much
The median total compensation for vascular surgeons came in at $656,922, up less than 2% from the previous year. MedAxiom did point to the specialty’s “relatively stable pattern” of growth over the last several years
Other key surgery trends to consider
Cardiac surgery programs actually reported a lower median number of surgeons in 2025 (2.25) than in 2024 (2.66). At the same time, the median number of care team members still increased from 5 in 2024 to 5.88 in 2026. This is due to an increased APP presence on cardiac surgery teams, according to the report, and the same trend was seen in vascular surgery as well.
“These findings suggest that surgical programs expanded care team capacity primarily through increased APP staffing rather than growth in surgeon headcount,” according to the report. “This trend is consistent with the broader workforce patterns observed throughout this report, where organizations continue to leverage APPs to support growing patient demand and extend physician capacity.”
Another key takeaway from the report was the increased productivity for both cardiac and vascular surgeons. Median work relative value units (wRVUs) increased slightly in cardiac surgery and more significantly in vascular surgery. The higher bump for vascular surgeons may be partly explained by the drop in wRVUs the specialty experienced from 2023 to 2024.
“Unlike the prior year, compensation and productivity moved in the same direction across both specialties, suggesting closer alignment between production and compensation during 2025,” according to the report.
Click here to access the full report. Prior coverage from Cardiovascular Business focused on cardiologist data is available here.
Michael has more than 19 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.