Becker's Spine Review

6 SPINE SURGEONS Orthopedics no longer the highest-paid specialty: 19 stats on compensation, net worth & more By Alan Condon O rthopedic surgeons are no longer the highest-paid medical specialty in the U.S., with plastic surgeons on average taking home a larger salary each year, according to Med- scape's "Physician Compensation Report 2021." Nineteen insights on orthopedic surgeon compensation, incentive bonuses, net worth and more, drawn from five recent reports: 1. e average annual pay for orthopedic surgeons is $511,000, the same as last year. Plastic surgeons topped Medscape's 2021 list with an average pay of $526,000. 2. On average, orthopedic surgeons generate $3.29 million a year in revenue for hospitals, the fourth-highest of any specialty, according to Merritt Hawkins. 3. Orthopedic surgeons earn the highest incentive bonuses, taking home $116,000 on average each year. e same three specialties — orthopedics, ophthalmology and otolaryngology — topped the list last year. 4. Nineteen percent of orthopedic surgeons reported having a net worth of more than $5 million, the highest of any specialty, according to Medscape's "Physician Debt and Net Worth Report 2020." 5. Average guaranteed income/base salary offered to orthopedic sur- geons over the past five years was: 2019-20: $626,000 2018-19: $536,000 2017-18: $533,000 2016-17: $579,000 2015-16: $521,000 6. Forty-two percent of specialists expect to return to pre-pandemic income levels this year, while 41 percent anticipate reaching normal levels in two to three years. 7. Fiy-three percent of orthopedic surgeons report being fairly com- pensated for their work. 8. Orthopedic surgery is the specialty with the third-largest gender wage gap, according to Doximity's "2020 Physician Compensation Report." Male orthopedists earn an average salary of $614,447, com- pared to $491,770 for women. 9. Female orthopedic surgeons earn on average $122,677 per year less than their male counterparts, according to Doximity's "2020 Physi- cian Compensation Report." 10. Only 9 percent of women physicians specialize in orthopedics. 11. According to Medscape, the top-earning states for physicians on average are: Alabama: $348,000 Kentucky: $340,000 Oklahoma: $338,000 Indiana: $332,000 Missouri: $332,000 12. Compensation and reimbursement factor into burnout for 34 percent of orthopedists. 13. More than one-third of orthopedists are burned out. 14. e top three burnout contributors are bureaucratic tasks (65 per- cent), increasing computerization of medical practice (44 percent) and insufficient compensation/reimbursement (34 percent). 15. Orthopedic surgeons report spending 13.9 hours per week on ad- ministrative work, the seventh lowest of any specialty. 16. Orthopedic surgeons report having about 18 percent of their claims denied. 17. Among specialists in Medscape's survey, 22 percent of orthope- dic surgeons had a mortgage of over $500,000. 18. Twenty-eight percent of orthopedic surgeons are still paying medical school debt. 19. If given the opportunity, 96 percent of orthopedic surgeons would choose orthopedics as their specialty again. n Neurosurgical group, hospital to pay $10M for alleged improper billing By Alan Condon P hoenix-based Neurosurgical Associates and Dignity Health's St. Joseph's Hospital agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations of improper billings. The organizations allegedly billed Medicare for "certain doubly and triply concurrent and overlapping surger- ies" that violated federal regulations and reimburse- ment policies, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a May 5 news release. Per terms of the settlement, Neurosurgical Associates entered into a corporate integrity agreement with HHS that requires the practice to maintain a compliance pro- gram, install a risk assessment program and hire an in- dependent review organization to review its Medicare and Medicaid claims. Anesthesiologist Bruce Kingsley, MD, filed the lawsuit in 2018 under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act. The provision allows any individual to bring civil actions on behalf of the federal government and share in any recovery obtained. n

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