Are physician salaries too high?
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
–Mark Twain
As we consider the wastefulness of the healthcare system, I have heard many people complain that physician salaries are one of the main culprits in escalating costs.
Dr. Reece compares the average income of some of the highest paid physician specialists, with that of hospital executives, medical insurance executives, and fortune 500 CEOs. Check this out:
Highest Paid Physicians
1. Orthopedic, spinal surgery, $554,000
2. Neurosurgery, $476,000
3. Heart surgeons, $470,000
4. Diagnostic radiology, Interventional, $424,000
5. Sports Medicine, surgery, $417,000
6. Orthopedic Surgery, $400,000
7. Radiology, non-interventional, $400,000
8. Cardiology, $363,000
9. Vascular surgery, $354,000
10. Urology, $349,000
Executive Pay for Massachusetts Hospital CEOs
1. James Mongan, MD, Partners Healthcare, $2.1 million
2. Elaine Ullian, Boston Medical Center, $1.4 million
3. John O’Brien, UMass Memorial Medical Center, $1.3 million
4. David Barrett, MD, Lahey Clinic, $1.3 million
5. Mark Tolosky, Baystate Health, $1.2 million
6. James Mandell, MD, Children’s Hospital, Boston, $1.1 million
7. Gary Gottlieb, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, $1 million
8. Peter Slavind, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, $1 million
2005 Total Annual Compensation for Publicly Traded Managed Care CEOs
1. United Health Care $8.3 million
2. Wellpoint, Inc, $5.2 million
3. CIGNA, $4.7 million
4. Sierra Health, $3.4 million
5. Aetna, Inc, $3.3 million
6. Assurant, Inc, $2.3 million
7. Humana, $1.9 million
8. Health Net, $1.7 million
Top Corporate CEO Compensation
1. Capital One Financial, $249 million
2. Yahoo, $231 million
3. Cedant, $140 million
4. KB Home, $135 million
5. Lehman Brothers Holdings, $123 million
6. Occidental Petroleum,, $81 million
7. Oracle, $75 million
8. Symantec, $72 million
9. Caremark Rx, $70 million
10. Countrywide Financial, $69 million
But the real story here is the salary of our primary care physicians – those unsung heroes of the front lines. KevinMD pointed out a recent news article citing $75,000.00/year as the average salary of the family physician in the state of Connecticut, and that their malpractice insurance consumed $15,000.00 of that. Although this is certainly below the national average for pediatricians (they start at about 110,000 to 120,000), I’ve seen many academic positions in the $90,000 to 100,000 range.
Now I ask you, does it seem fair that the vast majority of physicians (the primary care physicians) are making one tenth of the average hospital executive salary? Should doctors really be in the cross hairs of cost containment?
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
“physician salaries are one of the main culprits in escalating costs.” – When you consider the rigourous threshold for an aspiring physician to over come, it is relatively the most specialized carreer path. In order to bome a physician, you have to complete at least four years of undergraduate study, complete another four years of medical school and finally another four years of unspecialized residency! Specialized physicians take even longer to complete residency. This process is also highly competitive. So we have a shortage of doctors and thus a high demand. They also give up their youth and sacrafice familiy for responsibility in order to make it through their studies. Does this not justify why they are the highest paid? Plus, people pay good money to live longer.
Based on the info in this blog – which is not the 1st time I’ve heard these type of numbers, many docs are grossly underpaid! I have a step-sister in law who is a doctor and though she is early in her career she certainly doesn’t seem rich from becoming a dr. In fact she has implied to me that she makes out much better working “extra” doc jobs at urgent care type places at nights and w/e’s vs. her normal practice.