The nations cardiologists are still earning more than a half million dollars a year, but their income took a hit last year as trends in medicine and insurance payment curb the number of heart procedures needed and performed. Cardiology income dropped in 2013 for the first time in five years, with median compensation for full-time interventional cardiologists at $558,824 nationally, according to MedAxiom, a Neptune, Fla-based firm that works with and helps manage cardiovascular practices and programs across the country. Data for MedAxioms 2014 Provider Compensation & Productivity Report is based on data submitted last year by more than 130 cardiology programs representing more than 2,500 cardiologists. Increasingly, doctors are being asked to take care of patients before they get sick and compensation is beginning to reflect that. Private health plans, employers, government health programs like Medicare and insurers under the Affordable Care Act are moving away from fee-for-service payment to providers that critics say can lead to overuse and unnecessary treatments and procedures like invasive cardiology. A lot of the guidelines are more evidenced-based and show that a lot of testing done in the past doesnt provide value, Sauer said in an interview with Forbes. Anything we do to … Continue reading →