The COVID-19 pandemic meant fewer patients and even temporary closures for many physicians’ offices in 2021, affecting both compensation and the potential well-being of healthcare professionals and patients. A new “Medscape Endocrinologist Compensation Report 2021,” has focused on how endocrinologists’ practices have been affected by these events, concluding that while physicians in some specialties continue to struggle to recover, endocrinologists belong to a specialty that has not been as significantly affected.
The report indicated that despite 42% of endocrinologists reporting some decline in compensation, average income grew from $236,000 in 2019 to $245,000 in 2020. This small growth mirrored income for other physicians, where average income varied little year-over-year.
For those endocrinologists who saw income drops, 87% cited COVID-19-related issues, including job loss, fewer hours, and fewer patients. Only 17% attributed drops to non-COVID-19-related issues. This is compared with 45% of overall physicians who said the pandemic did not cause them financial- or practice-related harm.
Physician work hours generally declined for at least a portion of the COVID-19-impacted timeline, including those who were furloughed, but most are now working the same hours they did prior to the pandemic. While intensivists, infectious disease specialists, and public health and preventive medicine physicians are working 6 or more hours per week than before, endocrinologists are back to their average totals of 50 hours per week.
Despite physicians generally working the same number of hours per week as they did prior to the pandemic, they are typically seeing fewer patients. This is due to extra time spent on medical office safety protocols, answering questions around COVID-19, and other factors. While pediatricians are experiencing one of the largest average declines in patient visits of 18%—and dermatologists, orthopedists, and otolaryngologists are not far behind at roughly 15%—endocrinologists are only seeing average declines of about 5%.
In last year’s report, 49% of endocrinologists said they felt they were being fairly compensated. The 2021 report reflects little change at 50%. At the top of the list are oncologists, who went from 67% in last year’s report to 79% in this year’s report.
