with significant payment cuts to radiology, does IR also get dragged along with those cuts..i.e. how do the decreasing payments to diagnostic radiology affect IR?
Is IR compensation tied in with DR?
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Most interventional radiologist also read diagnostic imaging studies pertaining to VIR
Incorrect. There are not a whole lot of studies pertaining to IR.
Believe it or not, outside academic centers, 100% IR jobs are hard to come by.
Most IR jobs these days are 30%-40% IR and the rest is DR. There are not a whole lot of studies pertaining to IR. In some places vascular surgery is reading US and even if radiology reads it, it is not a full day work, so usually goes to US person.
The reason I bring this up, is to clarify that as an IR in pp, expect to read a lot of X-rays, US and CTs.
There are 100% IR practices and there are jobs that are mostly IR, but not a routine.
Whether the current model is harmful to build an IR practice and whether IR should separate from DR is a different story, I don't want to get into.
The reimbursement for IR procedures has been decreased, not as much as DR. However, vascular work volume in general either stroke, or PAD or Coronary art disease has gone down in the last few years as a result of better medical treatment. On top of that, IR also has seen volume loss as a result of turf issues. But, some new technologies and procedures helped to compensate for some volume loss.
If you like it do it. If not, don't do it.
This is the best advice. You're going to live a very comfortable life outside of medicine as an IR physician regardless as to whether or not reimbursement rates are cut/will be cut again.
I honestly feel that the cuts cause problems for current attendings more than for us. I did a pathology fellowship last year where I was paid 24k for the entire year. I paid back a $1,500 loan from my undergrad, went out to eat, and pretty much did whatever I wanted within reason. I don't think we have a good idea about how much money 200k, 300k, or 400k are. They're just numbers to us.
I guess my question is if diagnostic radiology salary falls down to family med levels as is being predicted by posters at auntmillie..will IR in academic centers (not private practice where IR isn't 100%) also have family med-like salaries? does the government differentiate between IR and DR when reimbursing? i do like IR but if salaries fall that low then what's the benefit of doing 6 years of extra training plus the headache of a dismal job market (which will only get worse for IR as some people are going to do IR because of the "required" fellowships due to ABR's new rules and terrible job market in diagnostic radiology), wouldnt it make sense to just suck it up and do 5 years of gen surgery and then do interventional procedures? I know a couple of general surgeons at academic centers who are now doing image-guided liver tumor ablations..
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Do general surgery, if it makes more sense to you.
I don't understand all these discussions.
The way that you are choosing your field, the likelihood of being happy in it is 0.8 %.
If I had to pick someone to stick a catheter in me and ablate a tumor, it wouldn't be a general surgeon with some interventional training...
dont try to predict a moving target👎. do what you like...do it well...and you will be successful.
