Physicians' net income from the practice of medicine declined about 7% between 1995 and 2003 after adjusting for inflation, according to a national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Primary care physicians fared the worst with a 10.2% decline in real income between 1995 and 2003, while surgeons' real income declined by 8.2%. But medical specialists' real income essentially remained unchanged. Declining incomes, primarily caused by flat or declining fees from payers, make physicians reluctant to do charity care or serve on hospital committees, said the study. In contrast to physician incomes, wages for other professionals rose about 7% during the same time period.
The study, entitled Losing Ground: Physician Incone, 1995-2003, also found that although physicians’ overall work hours have slightly declined, they are spending a significantly larger proportion of their work time caring for patients now, 86%, compared with the mid-1990s when they spent 81% on direct patient care. The volume of physician services also increased substantially between 1999 and 2003, largely because of the growth in the number of tests and procedures, which partly explains why medical specialists have seen their incomes growing at a faster pace than primary care physicians. The report said that the income disparity between procedure-oriented specialists and other physicians may lead to a shortage of primary care physicians and other specialists that provide mostly cognitive services.
