Radiologists 2nd among specialties with highest on-call pay
Radiologists are among physician specialists with the highest on-call pay, according to new information from salary data firm Marit Health.
Rads ranked No. 2, averaging per-call pay of $1,845, behind neurosurgeons ($2,045) and ahead of pathologists ($1,700)—“all specialties where coverage is scarce and hospitals are highly motivated to ensure it.” Approximately 20% of radiologists surveyed said their salaries incorporate paid call, far fewer than others such as orthopedic surgeons (43%), neurosurgeons (39%) and urologists (37%).
Marit gathered its information from salary reports submitted by thousands of physicians across different specialties, practice settings and regions.
“The findings reveal striking disparities: only a minority of physicians receive any call pay, and the going rates can swing from just a few hundred dollars to well over $2,000 per on-call day depending on your specialty and situation,” it said in the Sept. 5 blog post.
Across all physicians, only 19% reported receiving additional compensation for on-call duties. Endocrinologists and infectious disease specialists were on the lower end of scale, collecting $363 and $533 per call day, respectively. Heavy call burden does not always equate to higher average pay, Marit said, with some specialties facing frequent instances with “little to no extra compensation.”
“The disconnect between call burden and call pay is especially stark,” Marit Health said. “Nephrologists and infectious disease physicians often have some of the heaviest call schedules but little to no stipend. Meanwhile, fields with lighter call, like radiology, can command high stipends when coverage is needed.”
Private physician groups (25%, $1,334) are slightly more likely to pay for call than hospitals (24%, $1,088) or academic settings (21%, $1,182). The salary firm noted regional differences in on-call pay, too. Docs most commonly collect call compensation in the West & Pacific (34%, $1,236) and Rocky Mountain (33%, $1,280) regions and least commonly in the Northeast (16%–18%, $1,170). Marit also found that in-hospital calls typically pay more than at-home ones, while on-site overnight work commands a much higher stipend than “carrying a pager from home.”
The salary firm highlighted another recent perspective piece it published last month, advising radiologists and other physicians on how to respond to unreasonable call demands. It shared further insights on radiology and other medical specialties’ on-call trends. Radiologists have a “call burden index” (CBI) of about 60 on a 100-point scale, which Marit calculated to help make an “apples to apples comparison across specialties.” Hospital medicine was at No. 1 with a 100 CBI. About 83% of radiologists polled had at least some on-call duties, averaging about 1.5 days per week, with 22% occurring in hospitals. Radiation oncologists, meanwhile, face a call burden index of about 43, and 77% have at least some on-call work, averaging 1.4 days with 7% occurring in hospital facilities.
“Call is a reality of medicine—patients need care at night, on weekends, and on holidays. But it doesn’t need to be unlimited, uncompensated, or unsafe,” Dennis Hursh, founder of Physician Agreements Health Law, and Rob Anderson, MD, co-founder of Marit Health, wrote Aug. 27.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.