In 2014, the median compensation increased approximately 7.5 percent for a general cardiologist and 8 percent for a cardiologist working in the cath lab, according to an American Medical Group Association (AMGA) survey released on July 14. Meanwhile, compensation for cardiac or thoracic surgeons increased 4.8 percent from the previous year.
For cardiologists, the median compensation was $452,500, up from $425,000 the previous year. The median compensation was $498,929 for cardiologists working in practices of up to 300 employees and $423,774 for those working in practices of more than 300 employees.
The median compensation for cardiologists working in the cath lab was $588,910, an increase from $544,733 the previous year. The median compensation was $599,410 for cardiologists working in practices of up to 300 employees and $579,334 for those working in practices of more than 300 employees.
For cardiac or thoracic surgeons, the median compensation was $596,637, up from $569,073 the previous year. The median compensation was $650,122 for surgeons working in practices of up to 300 employees and $567,132 for those working in practices of more than 300 employees.
The AMGA defined compensation as base and variable compensation plus all voluntary salary reductions. The organization excluded fringe benefits and employer payments to retirement, pension, supplemental executive retirement plan or tax-deferred profit-sharing plans.
For physicians as a whole, the median compensation increased 2.8 percent in 2014. The median compensation decreased 0.3 percent for primary care specialists, increased 3.2 percent for other medical specialists and increased 2.0 percent for surgical specialists.
The AMGA received responses from 251 medical groups representing 73,006 providers. The report included data on 134 physician specialties and 27 other provider specialties. The AMGA has been conducting the survey since 1986.
Nearly 60 percent of the providers worked in groups of more than 300 physicians, while approximately 99 percent worked in clinics with multiple specialties. Further, 54 percent of the medical groups that responded were majority owned by health systems and 25 percent were majority owned by physicians.
Read a news release on the AMGA report here.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.