Medscape: eight specialties hit $500K

Medscape said on April 10 that eight U.S. physician specialties averaged more than $500,000 in total annual compensation in its 2026 physician compensation report, a survey covering doctors’ 2025 pay. The report said physicians overall reported compensation growth of about 3% in 2025. (medscape.com) It defined total compensation as base salary, incentive bonus and other income such as profit-sharing contributions. Medscape said respondents were full-time physicians practicing in the United States. Matthew Wells, a senior director at AMGA Consulting, told Medscape that 2025 looked like “a return to normalization” for physician compensation. (medscape.com) Wells said the main drivers were higher physician productivity, including more patient visits and more work relative value units, along with better business-office efficiency. Medscape separately said average physician pay gains outpaced the 2.7% annualized core inflation rate at the end of 2025. ### Which doctors made up the $500,000 group? Medscape said eight specialties crossed the $500,000 mark in average total annual compensation, though the report excerpt available publicly did not list all eight in the same summary page. (medscape.com) The report said all of those specialties except otolaryngology had also been above $500,000 in the prior year’s survey. It also said pediatrics and public health and preventive medicine remained at the bottom of the pay rankings in the prior survey. Angie Caldwell, a principal at PYA Accountants & Advisors in Tampa, said she was “not surprised” that orthopedics, cardiology and radiology were at the top of the list. (medscape.com) Caldwell attributed that ranking to national supply constraints and demand for procedures. She also pointed to technology and research as factors that could draw more medical students into some of those specialties. ### Why did procedure-heavy fields stay near the top? Wells told Medscape that rising productivity helped explain the broader increase in compensation in 2025. His comments linked higher pay to more patient volume and more billable work measured through work relative value units, a standard metric in physician payment. (medscape.com) Medscape said both primary care physicians and specialists saw average growth rates in roughly the same 3% range, even though the highest-paying fields remained concentrated in specialties with heavy procedural workloads. Caldwell gave Florida as an example of how local markets can amplify those trends. She said advances in orthopedics, including hip and knee replacements shifting from hospitals to outpatient settings, had benefited some markets more than others. (medscape.com) ### Did doctors say they felt better about their pay? Medscape said physicians were more likely than a year earlier to say they felt fairly paid. The report also said 26% of physicians described themselves as at most “moderately” aggressive the last time they negotiated salary in their contract. Many of the remaining respondents, Medscape said, did not have an opportunity to bargain. (medscape.com) The dermatologist compensation report published on May 15 added a specialty-level example of that split. Medscape said dermatologists’ compensation fell by roughly 1% on average in 2025, yet dermatologists were more likely than in the previous year to say they felt fairly paid, and about half expected some compensation increase by the end of 2025. (medscape.com) ### What exactly did Medscape count as compensation? Medscape said the survey included only full-time U.S. physicians and counted total compensation as salary, bonus and profit-sharing or similar income. The company’s Salary Explorer says its compensation data are presented in aggregated form and can be filtered by specialty, location, experience and practice setting. (medscape.com) Medscape also says the tool excludes residents and is designed to preserve physician anonymity through geographic aggregation. ### Where can readers see the next set of details? Medscape’s specialty pages and reports index showed additional 2026 compensation reports, including cardiology and dermatology, published on May 15, 2026. (medscape.com) Medscape also lists its Salary Explorer and specialty-by-specialty compensation pages on its website, where the broader 2025 compensation dataset remains available. (medscape.com 1) (medscape.com 2)