Financial Compensation For Hepatologists in Different Practice Settings

Abstract

Several governmental agencies and private organizations monitor data on relative value units (RVUs) and salary earned by various medical specialists. There are currently no data that define the RVU production and salary earned by hepatologists. A web-based survey that queried the number of patients that a hepatologist cares for, RVU production, and salary support was sent to 2,587 members of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. A total of 391 members completed the survey, 229 of whom reported spending more than 75% of their time in clinical practice/direct patient care and served as the basis for this analysis. The mean age of the cohort was 48 years, 77% were male, and all regions of country were represented. Their mean duration in clinical practice was 11.4 years. Hepatologists worked in four practice settings: university hospital with a liver transplant (LT) program (UHLT, n = 148), non-university hospital with LT (nonUHLT, n = 35), university hospital with no LT (UHnoLT, n = 29), and community practice (CP, n = 17). The average number of patients seen monthly was lowest for hepatologists at a UHLT (154) and highest for those in CP (293). Hepatologists at LT programs saw the highest percentage of patients with liver disease (91% of encounters), performed the fewest endoscopic procedures (12%-17%), but received the highest compensation/RVU ($68-$85) compared with hepatologists at UHnoLT and CP ($44-$63/RVU). The mean base salary for all hepatologists with fewer than 5 years of experience was $273,507, and this increased to $347,656 for those with more than 5 years of experience. We concluded that hepatologists at LT centers are compensated at much higher rates per encounter than in other practice settings. This may be due to salary subsidies provided by the UHLT and nonUHLT to their hepatologists.