Median compensation for radiologists remained basically flat last year (excluding inflation) while primary care doctors enjoyed a 5 percent median income boost, possibly as a result of changes in U.S health care delivery, according to a new salary survey.
The trend for radiation oncologists, who are facing some significant snips to Medicare reimbursements next year, was the opposite of the one experienced by primary care docs: median compensation dropped 5 percent. General surgeons, however, saw a 2.6 percent growth in compensation.
The figures come courtesy of the Medical Group Management Association's 2012 Physician Compensation and Production Survey Based on 2011 Data, an annual physician survey that relies on data from more than 62,000 providers.
According to the survey, being released this month, diagnostic radiologists received a median compensation of $473,273 in 2011, the group told DOTmed News by e-mail, an increase of less than half a percent from 2010. That year, radiologists' median compensation equaled $471,253, according to MGMA's 2011 survey.
MGMA's results are not inflation-adjusted. The inflation rate from 2010 to 2011 averaged just above 3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS' inflation calculator, a radiologist would have had to have earned about $486,128 in 2011 to get the earning of power of $471,253 in 2010 dollars.
For radiation oncologists, median compensation fell from $519,677 in 2010 to $493,519 in 2011, according to MGMA's data. Gynecologists and nephrologists also saw their compensations dip, MGMA said.
However, primary care doctors, while perhaps typically earning less than half of what radiation oncologists and radiologists took home, experienced a 5.16 percent increase in median compensation. Family practice docs had a median return of $200,114 and pediatricians or adolescent medicine docs $203,948, MGMA said.
General surgeons also experienced earnings growth. Median compensation rose from $343,958 in 2010 to $352,826 in 2011, MGMA said.
Primary docs, radiation oncologists
The pressure to better coordinate care and lower costs, as well as higher employment of physicians by integrated delivery networks, could help explain the change in primary care docs' compensation, according to Dr. Michael L. Nochomovitz, president of University Hospitals Physician Services in Cleveland.
"There appears to be a growing focus on primary care providers in anticipation of new methodologies in payment, a focus on coordination of care, and the imperative to control utilization and costs in the system," he said in a statement put out by MGMA.
As for radiation oncologists, the news of slight compensation declines comes as the specialists face more bad omens. Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicated that reimbursement cuts could be coming for some radiation oncology services next year -- estimated to total some 15 percent -- under the new proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
Those cuts would have a "negative impact on patient access to life-saving cancer treatment, particularly in rural communities, and could jeopardize patient safety,” Dr. Leonard L. Gunderson, who chairs the board of directors of ASTRO, a radiation oncologist society, warned in a statement this week.
MGMA does caution that its report is based on voluntary participation and might not be representative of the industry.
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