Physician Income Relative to Hospital Revenue by Specialty

June 4, 2010 by Michael Ricciardelli · 2 Comments
Filed under: Hospital Finances, Physician Compensation 

Photo by Felix Nine via Flickr

Photo by Felix Nine via Flickr

Wandering through the pages of Health Law Prof Blog, I found this post from a few months ago which looked at a WSJ Health Blog article which examined net hospital revenue derived per physician and compared such revenue generation among various specialties. The average revenue generation per physician amounted to “about $1.54 million based on 114 U.S. hospitals responding to a survey by physician recruiters Merrit Hawkins…. (Revenue here means net inpatient and outpatient dollars derived from referrals, tests and procedures done in the hospital.)”

We’ve looked at physician compensation in relation to physician shortages here at HRW before, noting that “over the course of ten career years, if calculated at a constant rate without regard to future increases in compensation, the median paid “Family Doctor, Branch” will have earned $1,900,182. During those same static 10 years….If that same Family Doctor were to then consult with someone from the lowest paid of the three categories of Radiologist, Not neural, Non-Interventionist, she would be doing so with someone who had made $4,208,580 during that time–which would be $2,308,398 more than she–or more than twice as much.

But this chart below offers a slightly different perspective, showing relative hospital income to specialty and raises some interesting questions regarding hospital finances and chosen areas of focus in relation to return on investment. A focus on kidneys, for instance, would not, it seems, be favored. The ratio of hospital income to physician salary in Nephrology is 2.91 to 1. For Psychiatry it’s 6.45 to 1. For Hematology/Oncology it’s 4.33 to 1. Additionally, in actual income generated, Psychiatry brings in almost 2x as much as Nephrology; Hematology brings in over 2x as much.

One hears often about shortages in dialysis facilities, but mental health clinics and cancer centers barrage the airwaves with their advertisements. Perhaps it is not a coincidence.

Hospital Annual Revenue per Doctor by Specialty

Specialty

Avg. Revenue

Avg. Salary
Neurosurgery

$2,815,650

$571,000
Cardiology/Invasive

$2,240,366

$475,000
Orthopedic Surgery

$2,117,764

$481,000
General Surgery

$2,112,492

$321,000
Internal Medicine

$1,678,341

$186,000
Family Practice

$1,622,832

$173,000
Hematology/Oncology

$1,485,627

$335,000
Gastroenterology

$1,450,540

$393,000
Urology

$1,382,704

$401,000
OB/GYN

$1,364,131

$266,000
Cardiology/Non-Invasive

$1,319,658

$419,000
Psychiatry

$1,290,104

$200,000
Pulmonology

$1,204,919

$293,000
Neurology

$907,317

$258,000
Pediatrics

$856,154

$171,000
Ophthalmology

$842,711

$282,000
Nephrology

$696,888

$240,000




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Comments

2 Responses to “Physician Income Relative to Hospital Revenue by Specialty”
  1. Frank Pasquale says:
    06/25/2010 at 2:57 pm

    Is there good data on average costs generated by each specialty? Are there some where the costs routinely outweigh the revenue, or vice versa? That could explain the rise of specialty hospitals in some specialties (like cardiology and orthopedics) and not others.

  2. James Rizzuti says:
    05/04/2012 at 2:27 am

    What I’m seeing here in Columbia, SC is a MASSIVE campaign to sweep people into cardiac surgery. Billboards, magazines, television, etc. Lots of clever slogans and brand marketing.

    Virtually an all-out advertising blitz on behalf of Lexington Medical Center, featuring their young good looking chief cardiologist.

    Fashionable heart bypasses and valve jobs, etc.

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