Mary Chris Jaklevic, Modern Healthcare, August 2, 1999
Income growth for most doctors is slowing, according to the most recent surveys of physician compensation. In fact, Modern Healthcare’s 1999 report on physician compensation surveys suggests that compensation has declined for five specialties. Compensation climbed in only nine of the 14 specialties that were included in both the 1998 and 1999 reports, based on a median of average compensation figures for each specialty. Increases of 0.8% to 15.1% were seen in anesthesiology, non-invasive cardiology, emergency medicine, family practice, internal medicine, pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry and urology. Decreases, ranging from 1.9% to 10.5% were reported in general surgery, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology and radiology.
Eleven organizations submitted data for the report, up from nine last year. On a cautionary note, timing and sampling methodologies of individual surveys vary widely. Two firms, Weatherby Health Care Group, track starting salaries only; their numbers were not used to calculate the median changes from last year.