We are heading for yet another year-end, with some fulfilled wishes and some unfulfilled tasks. It is that time of the year, wherein the general population, as well as professional physicians reflect on their financial status, to find out how, much you have gained and how much one has lost.
By and large we all know that doctors generally make a decent living, irrespective of their practice. But their revenue cycle management sometimes does not reflect positive numbers. This issue is most probably related to the in-house accounting department. Yes, as most of the staff is pre-occupied with the daily physician workload, it is here that errors in medical billing and coding occur. To resolve this issue, and streamline the entire billing cycle with RCM, outsourcing the task of billing and coding to offshore entities is a great way, to achieve high income numbers.
Doctors are among the highest earners in the healthcare field. How much Physicians are paid relies on upon their practice, specialty, schedule, patient mix and the region/location where they practice.
To get an indication regarding the revenue, there are averages and benchmarking done for each specialty compiled by professional organization and financial institutions. One such institute is Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). They release data related to physicians revenue each year that presents doctors/physicians with an exact viewpoint about how much each specialty makes, and what are the fault lines regarding a practice.
Here is how the numbers for each specialty stack up.
Physicians Specialties Average Compensation
From the figures above, one can clearly make out that Pediatrician, are the ones who get minimal remuneration of any specialist on the list, make over $200,000—placing them in the top 5% of workers in the U.S. The list also displays that orthopedists and cardiologists were numbers one and two in 2015 as well, with salaries of $421,000 and $376,000, respectively.
Pathologists and plastic surgeons saw no adjustment in remuneration, and allergists and pulmonologists, saw their numbers going down. Besides these two all other specialties saw a surge in salary contrasted with 2015.
A point to remember here is that specialists in the Southeast and North Central region, which incorporates the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, take home the highest salary on an average. However, one discouraging note here is that female doctors get less remuneration than their male partners, whether they are primary care doctors or specialties. But one thing that female physicians should take note of is, the ladies' income expanded more in the last 5 years than men's.
In general, however, female doctors make 24% less, than what a male doctor earns. And interestingly, there are essentially more female doctors in pediatrics than men, which is the least compensated specialty.