Activities and Compensation of Advanced XXXX Specialists: Results of the @entity712 Society of America (HFSA) Survey.

@entity1 @entity712 @entity17261
BACKGROUND: In the current era, where @entity712 ( @entity712 ) has become an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certified subspecialty, new data are needed to benchmark and value levels of clinical effort performed by @entity712 specialists (AHFMDs). METHODS AND RESULTS: A 36-question survey was sent to 728 AHFMDs members of the @entity712 Society of America, and 224 (31% responded). Overall, 56% worked in academic medical centers (AMCs) and were younger (48    9 years vs. 52    10 years, p < 0.01) and had a higher proportion of @entity1 (34% vs. 21%, p < 0.01) compared to non-AMCs. The percentage of time in clinical care was lower in @entity17261 (64    19% vs. 78    18 %, p = 0.002), with similar concentration on E_M services (79    18 % in @entity17261 vs. 72    18 % in non- @entity17261 , p = NS). The majority of non-clinical time was spent in program administration (10% in both AMCs and non-AMCs) and education/ research (15% in @entity17261 vs. 5% in non-AMCs). Although 69% of respondents were compensated by work relative value units (wRVUs), only a small percentage knew their target or the amount of RVU generated. The mean annual wRVUs generated were lower in @entity17261 compared to non- @entity17261 (5452   1961 vs. 9071    3484), p < 0.001). The annual compensation in @entity17261 was lower than non- @entity17261 (45% vs. 10% below  250,000 and 17% vs. 61% over  350,000, p < 0.001) and the satisfaction with compensation was higher in non-AMCs. CONCLUSIONS: AHFMDs compensation is largely dependent by practice type ( @entity17261 vs. non- @entity17261 ) and clinical productivity, as measured by wRVUs. These data provide an opportunity for benchmarking work effort and compensation for AHFMDs, allowing distinction from segments of cardiologists with greater opportunity to accrue procedural wRVUs. They also show several differences between @entity17261 and non- @entity17261 that should be considered when formulating work assignment and compensation for AHFMDs.
