Recruiting and paying a salary for a new physician in any specialty can be costly for hospitals, but physicians usually generate more revenue than they get in salary or income guarantees, according to the Merritt Hawkins "2016 Physician Inpatient/Outpatient Revenue Survey."
Orthopedic surgeons have the highest cost/benefit for hospitals when comparing average revenue they generate with annual salary.
The following is the breakdown of average revenue by specialty after subtracting the average salary for that specialty.
1. Orthopedic surgery: $2,249,605
2. Invasive cardiology: $1,923,136
3. Neurosurgery: $1,892,810
4. General surgery: $1,830,973
5. Internal medicine: $1,623,200
6. Hematology/oncology: $1,338,056
7. OB-GYN: $1,307,209
8. Family practice: $1,295,518
9. Urology: $993,659
10. Psychiatry: $984,586
11. Noninvasive cardiology: $969,971
12. Gastroenterology: $967,677
13. Pulmonology: $856,870
14. Ophthalmology: $786,577
15. Neurology: $748,536
16. Otolaryngology: $732,221
17. Nephrology: $437,054
18. Pediatrics: $470,972
Revenue data in this report were based on survey responses from 74 hospital and health system CFOs received from December 2016 through March 2016. Salary data were pulled from Merritt Hawkins' "2015 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives" report based on offers made to physicians in 3,128 physician search assignments completed by Merritt Hawkins from April 2014 through March 2015.