Radiology has the highest per-hour compensation among specialties at $281.27, a recent American Medical Association survey found.
The AMA surveyed 2,653 radiologists across 78 departments. For radiology, multiple sub-specialties, such as diagnostic and interventional radiology, and radiation oncology and nuclear medicine, were grouped together to create an accurate sample size.
The next highest paid specialties were otolaryngology and gastroenterology at $255.50 and $249.66 per hour, respectively.
"Despite ever-downward pressure on radiology reimbursement, many trends seem to be countering this pressure," Michael Booker, MD, said in a guest column published March 6 in Bulletin, the journal of the American College of Radiology. "Some of the factors with the greatest impact include the radiology labor shortage, ever-increasing work [relative value unit] requirements (leading to ever increasing burnout) and a shift from small radiology practices performing their own billing to employed and supplemented models."