Urologists see healthy increase in compensation

Urologists' median compensation went up 6.84% from 2002 to 2003, marking the largest percentage increase among eight surgical specialties, according to findings from the American Medical Group Association's 2004 Medical Group Compensation & Financial Survey. Median compensation for urologists was $319,125, compared with $298,703 in 2002.

Median gross charges for urology were slightly over $1.4 million in 2003 versus slightly over $1.2 million in 2002-an increase of 17.48%, by far the largest increase among the surgical specialties. Emergency care was a distant second at 6.99%.

On the down side, urologists' median relative work value units decreased 5.98% in 2003, the largest drop among the surgical subspecialties. Median work RVUs were $6,722 in 2002, and $6,320 in 2003.

The AMGA survey includes salary and productivity data on physicians in 98 specialties, including eight surgical specialties: cardiac/thoracic surgery, emergency care, general surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, and urology. Data were derived from 30,500 medical group physicians throughout the United States.