Disparities in physician income are related to disparities in health

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A major focus of public health, about which I have written several times, is addressing the disparities in health arising from modifiable conditions (such as inequality of opportunity, income, and racial and ethnic differences). While it is common for those with privilege – wealth, health, opportunity – to believe that they have these privileges because they are “deserving”, i.e., because of their hard work, education, etc., such an outlook minimizes the critically important fact that there are lots of people who work just as hard and have very little. The “illegal immigrant”, working 3 minimum (or sub-minimum) wage jobs to try to just keep his or her family fed and housed, is not only not lazy, but working a lot harder than many of us who are able to enjoy weekends off, play golf, watch the kids’ sporting events.

So it is clearly not hard work alone. It is very much influenced by where you start, and what your opportunities have been. These are the social determinants of health (e.g., Social Determinants, Personal Responsibility, and Health System Outcomes, September 12, 2010) and the capability that people have of acting in healthful ways (Capability: understanding why people may not adopt healthful behaviors, September 24, 2010). It is common for people who have a lot to minimize, rather than to emphasize, the degree to which their position at the start of the race has affected their current position. Attacks on those who would seek to redress some of the most egregious inequities are still couched in terms of “economic class warfare” by those who have already won the war. Those with privilege are very concerned about change that would leave them with less of a leg up; they may give lip service to Horatio Alger heroes, but are more likely to wish to follow the model of George W. Bush. “If you’ve spent your entire life with the wind at your back,” a wise sage once noted (and I do not know to whom to attribute it), “a calm day seems unfair”. In terms of health, the connections are very clear. It is good for your health to be born rich. The Horatio Alger hero, pulled up by their own bootstraps, has worse health outcomes than the child born to privilege.

Health disparities, then, are real and important. But why should we – should anyone – be concerned about the disparities in physician income? After all, even the more “poorly” paid specialists, in primary care, make far more than the average American. Yes, they have worked hard to get into and through medical school and residency training, but, just as noted above, so have a lot of other people who will never make nearly as much. The problem is that, if the presence of a larger number/percent of primary care physicians is associated with improvements in the health of the population, and if the presence of wide disparities in income significantly influence students to choose higher paid specialties instead, then these disparities in health status are likely to continue and the overall health of the American people is likely to suffer. There is good data on both counts. Many of the posts in this blog have addressed the first, the positive influence of primary care on the health of the population (e.g., Lower Costs in Grand Junction: More Primary Care, Less High Tech, October 18, 2010; Primary Care, IMGs, and the Health of the People, August 14, 2010; and many others) and on health disparities[1]. I have also addressed the other point, the decrease in the number of students choosing primary care careers (e.g., Primary care specialty choice: student characteristics, July 12, 2010; Primary Care’s Image: A Problem?, November 17, 2009, and others).

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine by Leigh, et. al, “Physician wages across specialties”[2], is the most recent effort to quantify the differences. They utilized the large Community Tracking Study (CTS) of physicians from 2004-2005 to gather information on physician income. They grouped the physician responses into 4 broad categories (surgical, internal medicine and pediatric subspecialties [IMPSS], primary care, and other) and again into 41 specific specialties. They went beyond previous studies to calculate gross personal income on an hourly basis (thus controlling for hours worked per week) and did further adjustments to control for other variables, principally sex and age. They used a statistical manipulation to estimate incomes above the maximum set for the CTS (for some reason set at $400,000, much lower than many subspecialists make).

The outcomes were not surprising in comparison to previously reported data. In the 4 broad-group comparisons, primary care physicians averaged about $60/hr compared to IMPSS at $85, other medical at $88, and surgical at $92. In the single specialty comparisons, General Surgery was taken as a reference being actually near the middle ($86/hr), with the top incomes in neurosurgery ($132), radiation oncology ($126), and medical oncology ($114). At the bottom were family practice, general practice, general internal medicine, geriatric medicine, internal medicine/pediatrics, and “other” pediatric subspecialties (whichever those may have been) with a range of $50-$58.

There are several reasons to think that differences are, in fact, greater than those reported. There was only a 53% response rate to the CTS, and so we do not know if non-respondents made more, less or the same as respondents. “Hospital-based” specialties, specifically anesthesiology and radiology, which are among the highest-paid, were excluded. Other high-end specialties, such as cardiovascular surgery or transplant surgery, do not appear as specific specialties, and may have their incomes hidden when grouped with “thoracic surgery” or “other surgical specialties”. There are many sources of income for many physicians, including a variety of expenses that can be paid by practices and which would presumably be greater for higher income practices. Many highly-paid specialties are paid by hospitals directly (such as anesthesiology and radiology) or through “physician service agreements”. The correction used by the authors of the study for incomes over $400,000 could have been inadequate; certainly anecdotal experience in many locations would suggest that considering $400,000 as a reasonable top end for the highest paid physicians would understate that by at least half.
Nonetheless, the income differences, even in 2004-05, were impressive. Given the debt load that medical students (particularly those, obviously, from the less wealthy families) graduate with, the significant attraction to higher pay is clear.

The Wall St Journal, in two recent articles (“Secrets of the system”) published October 26, 2010, looked at the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC), a group of 29 physicians convened by the AMA from different specialty organizations that make recommendations to Medicare on how to pay physicians for their, well, relative value. One, “Physician panel prescribes the fees paid by Medicare” by Anna Wilde Matthews and Tom McGinty, describes how this group meets to divide up a pie that Medicare seeks to keep constant. In the other, “Dividing the Medicare pie pits doctor against doctor”, Matthews discusses the contentiousness that happened when primary care physicians (greatly outnumbered) challenged their surgical colleagues to get a higher portion of the money (that is, to revalue activities done by primary care physicians relative to surgical specialists).

In the same issue of Archives of Internal Medicine that Leigh’s article appeared in, Federman and colleagues[3] surveyed physicians about whether they thought reimbursements were inequitable or not; 78.4% agreed that they are, with not that much difference between generalists and subspecialists. However, when the idea of shifting payments from subspecialists to generalists was raised, there was a marked difference; 66.5% of generalists supported this, while only 16.6% of surgeons did; overall 41.6% were supportive and 46.4% were opposed. That is, for most specialists, paying generalists more is ok, but paying themselves less is not.

The WSJ‘s Matthews quotes an email from Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) saying that the Medicare agency is moving to “improve Medicare's physician systems to correct historical biases against primary-care professionals." That needs to happen. The changes need to be dramatic. And they need to happen soon.

[1] Shi L, Macinko J, Starfield B, Xu J, Regan J, Politzer R and Wulu J, “Primary care, infant mortality, and low birthweight in the states of the USA”,J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58;374-380
[2] Leigh JP, Tancredi D, Jerant A, Kravitz RL, “Physican wages across specialties: informing the physician reimbursement debate, Arch Int Med 25Oct2010; 170(19):1728-34.
[3] Federman AD, Woodward M, Keyhani S, “Physicians’ opinions about reforming reimbursement: results of a national survey”, Arch Int Med, 25Oct2010;170(19):1735-42.
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Capability: understanding why people may not adopt healthful behaviors

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In Social Determinants, Personal Responsibility, and Health System Outcomes, I discussed the limitations of the potentially attractive (at least to the empowered) concept of “personal responsibility”. In its more malignant form, personal “accountability” as put forward by John Mackey of Whole Foods, there is the implicit – sometimes explicit – suggestion that people might be denied care if they had not personally taken on the behaviors that might have helped prevent the condition. Of course, which behaviors, for which conditions, and how much remains unspecified. Aerobic exercise 60 minutes daily? Or would 30 minutes 3 times a week qualify? No sweets, or cookies only on Sunday? How many? I am reminded (well, I’m old) of former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms who was against funding the treatment of AIDS as it came from inappropriate and immoral behavior (MSM sex and IV drugs were, I think, what he had in mind). Of course, he strongly supported both tobacco and funding the treatment of heart disease (such as he, a heavy smoker, had).

Of course, I’m sure that, today, smoking is on John Mackey’s “no-no” list, but it is the concept of “your bad habits are worse than my bad habits” that is emblematic of the “different from me is bad” phenomenon that ebbs and flows in world history, and has become increasing common both in this country and around the world. The Tea Party movement is one domestic example; at the “Values Conference” recently held in Washington, Christine O’Donnell, the newly-elected Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware, wowed the crowd with the line "We're not trying to take back our country. We ARE our country." Except, of course, for those who are not part of “we”. Me, for example. And those other ‘others’: those who believe in brotherhood, caring, and diversity.

But surely John Mackey is not embracing racism or prejudice? Classism, maybe; certainly discrimination against those who don’t adopt the health behaviors that he endorses. One might ask: why don’t they? And, if one does, we can get a good answer from a wonderful article that appeared in the recent Annals of Family Medicine, “Capability and clinical success”, by RL Ferrer and AV Carrasco (disclosure: Dr. Ferrer has previously been a guest-author on this blog.) Going beyond the “social determinants of health”, which is a relatively passive model in that it mainly just describes them, Drs. Ferrer and Carrasco discuss the concept of “capability” of health behaviors. They draw upon the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, who introduced this concept, and that of Jennifer Prah Ruger of Yale, who has developed its use in health (e.g., “Health capability: conceptualization and operationalization” in the January, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Public Health). The concept of “capability” goes beyond simply evaluating people’s behaviors, and looks at opportunity to perform those behaviors, which is not equally available to all:

“What distinguishes the capability framework from other approaches to evaluation is its emphasis on opportunity as well as achievement. Turning raw capacity (e.g., the ability to walk) into action (walking for 60 minutes a day) to achieve a goal (being physically fit) requires that there be real opportunities to do so. Examining the set of potential opportunities that are viable for a given person (a capability set) helps to define what goals are attainable. For instance, a capability set for physical activity would encompass the various modes and durations of physical activity that are realistically achievable given a person’s constraints of time, money, support from others, physical abilities, and what is locally available.”

Capability is influenced by individual, social, psychological and environmental factors, as well as by income. Money – or lack of it – is a major component, but not the only one, because other features can mitigate or exacerbate financial issues. The concept of “social capital” developed by Robert Putnam (“Bowling Alone”[1]) and others is one formulation of this. In his book Heat Wave[2], Eric Klinenberg describes how the deaths in the 1995 Chicago heat wave, while associated with age, illness, poverty and availability of air-conditioning, were also associated with the availability of social supports. He notes the differential death rates in two adjacent low-income communities. In one, the decimation of the commercial sector and fear of crime had people locked in hot apartments, while in the other neighbors checked on the old, sick, and poor, and merchants on the vibrant shopping street allowed them access to their air-conditioned stores. “A capability perspective,” write Ferrer and Carrasco, “implies that poverty should not be defined primarily by income but by scarce opportunity to pursue valued activities and goals. Strong external supports create opportunities that enable people with limited income to pursue their goals for healthy living. Capability is thus a key mediator of the relationship between socioeconomic position and outcomes.”

What Ferrer and Carrasco add to the discussion is the clinical component, discussing how the clinical relationship can take account of capability, and how the clinician can play a role in enhancing the health of patients through understanding and acting to help ameliorate its impact on those who have little. They suggest an example of a series of questions (their Table 2) that a clinician can ask in order to assess an individual’s capability of adopting different healthful behaviors. They also provide suggestions for how the clinician or practice can access help through social service agencies, public health departments, programs of connectors or promotores, and grass-roots agencies. Clinicians may be able to assist in helping people gain access to wholesome food or places to exercise, and to groups that would support their activities.

Of course, in some cases, maybe often, these programs will not already exist. In that case, it could become the role of the clinician or the practice, or even better the health system (or, to use the terms of the new ACA law (PL 111-148), the 'Accountable Care Organization') to help develop such programs in the interest of promoting the health of its patients. Indeed, we should and must if we are interested in promoting health and not just casting blame.

[1] Putnam, Robert D., 2000, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY
[2] Klinenberg, Eric., 2002, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of a Disaster in Chicago, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
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