After four years of medical school, three years of internal medicine residency, three years of general cardiology plus an additional one to two years of subspecialty training, FITs should have a better idea of their monetary value within the health care system.

In 2019, Merritt Hawkins conducted a qualitative analysis as part of a series of surveys covering the average annual net revenue that physicians generate for their affiliated hospitals. The data within the paper help to clarify compensation by way of discussing the cost associated in recruiting physicians and the revenue they generate in a cost/benefit analysis. A total of 62 surveys providing data on 93 separate hospitals were obtained. Hospital CFOs and financial managers were asked to indicate net inpatient and outpatient revenue generated by a single, full-time physician across multiple specialties. Although the data set is small and not expected to be reflective of the revenue generated at all hospitals, Merritt Hawkins believes the data to be generally reliable.

According to the survey, each non-invasive cardiologist, on average, generated $2,310,000, and an individual invasive cardiologist generated $3,484,375. For comparison, the average salary figures offered to recruit non-invasive cardiologists was $427,000 and $590,000 for invasive cardiologists. In general, cardiologists generate a considerable amount of revenue for the hospital system.

As an aspiring electrophysiologist, a total of eight years of postgraduate medical training will have taken place for me to practice independently. I am personally glad to have a better sense of what my value is to a hospital system, and I believe this may aid me in future contract negotiations. I hope other FITs find this information useful as well.

This article was authored by Carlos Vargas, DO, an FIT at Corpus Christi Medical Center. @cvargasFIT.