Salaries for diagnostic radiologists decreased 1.6% in 2010 but still improved for the five-year period between 2006 and 2010, according to the Medical Group Management Association's (MGMA) 2011 Physician Compensation and Production Survey.
The median compensation for a diagnostic radiologist in 2010 was $471,253, down 1.6% from 2009, but up 5.5% between 2006 and 2010.
By comparison, urology offered a median compensation of $249,867, up 5% from 2009 and an increase of 13.6% between 2006 and 2010. Emergency medicine physicians earned a median $277,297 in 2010, a gain of 5.6% from 2009 and an increase of 10.9% from 2006 to 2010.
Specialists within invasive cardiology earned $500,993 as a median salary in 2010, up 4% from 2009 and 9.5% from 2006 to 2010.
MGMA's report, which provides data on nearly 60,000 providers, also shows discrepancies in compensation within the same healthcare specialties on a region-by-region basis. The study attributed the differences to supply and demand for primary care or specialty physicians and a high level of competition between groups or specific specialties within a particular area.
