The American journal of managed care
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Comparative Study
Differences in physician compensation for cardiovascular services by age, sex, and race.
The purpose was to determine whether physicians receive substantially less compensation from patient groups (women, older patients, and nonwhite patients) that are reported to have low rates of utilization of cardiovascular services. Over an 18-month period we collected information on payments to physicians by 3,194 consecutive patients who underwent stress testing an 833 consecutive patients who underwent percutaneous coronary angioplasty at the Yale University Cardiology Practice. ⋯ Similar differences were observed for stress testing. These associations were largely explained by differences in insurance status.