Hopkins GIM: What's New

National Survey: Internists’ Salaries on the Rise

From the ACP Observer: Rebounding from several years of stagnation, salaries for general internists spiked upward last year, according to the latest national survey.

Internists' annual compensation rose by an average of 3.5% between 2005 and 2006, according to Modern Healthcare magazine’s annual Physician Salary Survey, published in the July 17 issue. Average annual compensation for internists ranged from $161,200 to $192,000, depending on the organization collecting the data, and averaged $177,000.

Hospitalist salaries increased even more, up to 12%, bringing their annual compensation to between $147,200 and $198,020. Modern Healthcare’s physician salary report is based on data collected independently by 15 different national recruiters and trade associations.

While salaries for specialties outside of internal medicine stayed flat, the survey found, specialists still are among the most highly paid professionals in the nation. Among the top earners were orthopedic surgeons, with average total cash compensation of about $403,000 in 2006, and orthopedic specialists, who earned nearly $489,000, followed by radiologists (average pay of $394,000), noninvasive cardiologists ($370,000; invasive cardiologists were not tracked), urologists ($340,000) and anesthesiologists ($333,000).

Despite the recent increase, primary care physicians remain at the bottom of the salary scale. Family physicians earned an average of $165,000 in 2006, up 3% from last year. Pediatricians earned about the same as family physicians after seeing a slightly higher average annual increase—3.4%.

Researchers who conducted the survey speculated demand for hospitalists is driving up salaries for internists across the board. Another factor is an increasing shortage of general internists as more graduating physicians choose subspecialties over primary care.

Modern Healthcare’s 2006 Physician Salary Survey is online.