Demand for doctors and a limited supply is driving up starting salaries, according to a report by AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division, formerly Merritt Hawkins. The organization found that average starting salaries are up 19% year over year for psychiatrists, 16% for dermatologists, 12.5% for anesthesiologists and 12% for orthopedic surgeons.
The report indicates orthopedic surgeons are offered the highest average starting salary at $633,000, followed by urologists at $540,000, interventional cardiologists at $517,000 and gastroenterologists at $506,000. Pediatricians are offered the lowest average starting salary of physicians at $233,000, according to the report.
“Rising physician starting salaries are a clear sign that demand for physicians is surging,” Leah Grant, president of AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions, said in a press statement. “Virtually every hospital in the United States, and many other entities, are seeking physicians.”
Grant noted a growing number of organizations — including retail clinics, urgent care centers, telehealth platforms, insurance companies and private equity firms — are seeking to recruit physicians, vying with hospitals and medical groups from a limited supply of candidates.
“Healthcare is evolving as new market entrants seek to change how and where care is delivered. More types of organizations are recruiting physicians, causing salaries to trend up,” she said.
The report also found that demand for medical specialists such as gastroenterologists, orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, pulmonologists, neurologists and psychiatrists is rising, while demand for primary care physicians such as family physicians and internists has cooled over the last several years. Sixty-four percent of AMN Healthcare’s search engagements over the prior 12 months were for medical specialists, while only 17% were for primary care physicians, according to the report.
AMN Healthcare’s 2023 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives report is based on 2,676 search engagements the company conducted from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.
