Heart Doctor Pay Drops To $558K As Interventions Scrutinized

The nations cardiologists are still earning more than a half million dollars a year, but their income took a hit last year as trends in medicine and insurance payment curb the number of heart procedures needed and performed.

Cardiology income dropped in 2013 for the first time in five years, with median compensation for full-time interventional cardiologists at $558,824 nationally, according to MedAxiom, a Neptune, Fla-based firm that works with and helps manage cardiovascular practices and programs across the country. Data for MedAxioms 2014 Provider Compensation & Productivity Report is based on data submitted last year by more than 130 cardiology programs representing more than 2,500 cardiologists.

Increasingly, doctors are being asked to take care of patients before they get sick and compensation is beginning to reflect that. Private health plans, employers, government health programs like Medicare and insurers under the Affordable Care Act are moving away from fee-for-service payment to providers that critics say can lead to overuse and unnecessary treatments and procedures like invasive cardiology.

A lot of the guidelines are more evidenced-based and show that a lot of testing done in the past doesnt provide value, Sauer said in an interview with Forbes. Anything we do to a patient has to add value.

Meanwhile, some observers say invasive procedures are less necessary at a statin drugs used to lower cholesterol like Pfizer Pfizers (PFE) Lipitor, Merck Mercks (MRK) Zocor and others are in cheaper generic form and practically in patients drinking water. Therefore, some analysts believe statins are helping keep patients arteries clear of plaque and away from the need for interventional cardiology.

Medaxioms executives say they have seen a marked decline in once prominent procedures like catheterizations, angioplasty, stents, nuclear testing and echocardiography.

Still, cardiologist income remains good with such medical professionals in the Midwest near the top of the scale at $559,000 while median income at the bottom in the northeast was at $460,815.

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Heart Doctor Pay Drops To $558K As Interventions Scrutinized