Postpandemic physician revenue recovery varies by specialty, practice type

Pandemic-associated physician revenue recovery in 2021 and 2022 varied by specialty and practice type, according to a study published in the July issue of Health Affairs.

Ravi B. Parikh, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues assessed pandemic-related impact on physician revenue (2020 to 2022) and how revenue varied by physician specialty and practice setting. The analysis included linked medical claims from a large national federation of commercial health plans to physician and practice data.

The researchers found that surgical specialties, emergency medicine, and medical subspecialties each experienced more than a 9 percent adjusted gross revenue decline in 2020 compared with prepandemic baselines. Pathology and psychiatry revenue experienced robust recovery by 2022, while surgical and oncology revenue remained at or below baseline. For physicians practicing in hospital-owned practices and in practices participating in accountable care organizations, revenue recovery in 2022 was greater.

“Given that financial constraints among physicians have been associated with health care consolidation and with leaving practice, policy makers may consider closer monitoring of revenue trends among physicians, particularly in those specialties with sustained gross revenue reductions during the pandemic,” the authors write.

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