Health IT Pros Face Salary Gap
Electronic medical records, compliance, and other initiatives are driving demand for health IT pros. But according to <em>InformationWeek</em>'s 2012 Salary Survey, their compensation still trails that of IT professionals across all industries.
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Implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), compliance with government regulations, and other healthcare IT initiatives are driving up demand for health IT pros these days. But while their pay inched up last year, health IT professionals' compensation still, for the most part, lags behind IT pros across all industries, according to the InformationWeek 2012 IT Salary Survey.
However, while health IT managers earned smaller paychecks than IT managers across other industries, healthcare CIOs fared better than CIOs in general. The median total compensation for CIOs across all industries in the 2012 survey was $161,000; healthcare CIOs earned $180,000. Healthcare IT staffers also did better than healthcare IT managers, whose increases in base pay and total compensation in 2012 over 2011 were slightly smaller than those seen from 2010 to 2011.
These numbers make sense when considering where organizations are in a variety of compliance-related cycles. From 2010 to 2011, for example, healthcare organizations--and their IT managers--were gearing up and planning for projects ranging from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' EHR Meaningful Use Stage 1 implementation to ICD-10 conversion and compliance with ramped-up Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
During that period, healthcare IT managers saw a slightly larger rise in total compensation than they did during the prior 12 months. From 2011 into 2012, these new projects were well underway at healthcare organizations facing impending deadlines, with small armies of IT talent doing much of the heavy lifting at that point (and with said IT staffers seeing a slightly bigger pay bump at the time).
The larger total compensation earned by healthcare CIOs compared with CIOs across all industries may reflect the level of challenges healthcare organizations are experiencing from an IT perspective. In fact, finding and keeping the needed IT and clinical IT skills to accomplish the multiple, high-profile projects in progress at most healthcare organizations is one of the biggest worries that CIOs have, according to the Health Information and Management Systems Society's (HIMSS) 2012 survey of 302 IT leaders.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said a lack of adequate staffing resources was the top barrier to IT implementation. In previous years, inadequate financial resources had been the No. 1 challenge faced by HIMSS survey respondents in terms of IT barriers. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor has predicted a shortage of 50,000 healthcare IT professionals, based on the extensive healthcare IT-related reform and regulatory mandates underway and expected down the road.
To view highlights from InformationWeek's 2012 healthcare IT salary survey, click through the following slides. For a more in-depth look at all 47 figures, check out the complete InformationWeek Report 2012 IT Salary Survey: Healthcare. (Free registration is required.)
Median annual base pay for healthcare IT staff in 2012 rose to $83,000 from $78,000 last year, according to the survey of 636 health IT staffers and 536 health IT managers. For health IT managers, base pay in 2012 was reported at $109,000, up from $103,000 in 2011. Across all industries, median base pay in 2012 is $85,000 for IT staff and $108,000 for IT managers. (See the full 2012 IT Salary Survey for complete results).
The gap between healthcare IT professionals and IT professionals in general is wider when it comes to total compensation. Median total compensation, including bonuses and direct cash payments, for healthcare IT staff in 2012 was $85,000, up from $80,000 in 2011. Total pay figures for healthcare IT managers rose to $114,000 from $110,000 in 2011. By comparison, median total compensation across all industries in 2012 was $90,000 for IT staff and $116,000 for IT managers.
Topping the salary chart for health IT pros were CIOs, with a median of $170,000 in 2012 (compared with $150,000 in 2011); CTOs, with $160,000 in 2012 (compared with $118,000 in 2011); and VPs, with a median base of $142,000 (down from $162,000 in 2011). Note that some of the changes in pay may reflect smaller bases of respondents with those titles participating in the survey.
Among management ranks, the InformationWeek survey found, healthcare IT project managers and program managers saw the biggest hikes in base salary. Project managers earned a median base pay of $107,000 in 2012, up from $93,000 in 2011, while program managers in 2012 earned $116,000, up from $110,000.
By job title, healthcare IT staffers who will earn a six-figure base pay in 2012 are architects, who will earn a median of $116,000 (compared with $110,000 in 2011); systems architects, who will earn a median of $108,000 (compared with $83,000 in 2011); and systems programmers, who will earn a median of $100,000 (compared with $90,000 in 2011).
Survey Date: January 2012
Region: North America
Number of Respondents: 1,172 healthcare IT professionals in 2012, composed of 636 IT staff and 536 IT managers
Purpose: To track IT salary and compensation trends from the perspective of those on the front lines, InformationWeek conducts an annual U.S. IT Salary Survey. Now in its 15th year, it's the largest employee-based IT salary survey in the country. Last year 18,201 full-time IT professionals completed the Web-based survey. This year 13,880 took part. The goal of this trendable study is to measure various aspects of compensation, benefits, and job satisfaction. This report focuses on the 1,172 healthcare IT professionals who participated in the survey.
Methodology: The survey was designed by InformationWeek and fielded online. The survey was promoted in InformationWeek's daily and weekly newsletters. In addition, email invitations with an embedded link to the survey were sent to qualified IT professionals from InformationWeek Business Technology Network print, newsletter, and events databases. The survey was fielded from November 2011 to January 2012.
The information in the report is based on responses from 1,172 healthcare IT professionals. Unemployed and part-time workers were excluded from these results, as were respondents from outside the United States. This report uses median rather than mean or average figures for salary and percentage changes to eliminate distortions caused by extremes at the high or low ends of the responses.
Survey Date: January 2012
Region: North America
Number of Respondents: 1,172 healthcare IT professionals in 2012, composed of 636 IT staff and 536 IT managers
Purpose: To track IT salary and compensation trends from the perspective of those on the front lines, InformationWeek conducts an annual U.S. IT Salary Survey. Now in its 15th year, it's the largest employee-based IT salary survey in the country. Last year 18,201 full-time IT professionals completed the Web-based survey. This year 13,880 took part. The goal of this trendable study is to measure various aspects of compensation, benefits, and job satisfaction. This report focuses on the 1,172 healthcare IT professionals who participated in the survey.
Methodology: The survey was designed by InformationWeek and fielded online. The survey was promoted in InformationWeek's daily and weekly newsletters. In addition, email invitations with an embedded link to the survey were sent to qualified IT professionals from InformationWeek Business Technology Network print, newsletter, and events databases. The survey was fielded from November 2011 to January 2012.
The information in the report is based on responses from 1,172 healthcare IT professionals. Unemployed and part-time workers were excluded from these results, as were respondents from outside the United States. This report uses median rather than mean or average figures for salary and percentage changes to eliminate distortions caused by extremes at the high or low ends of the responses.
Implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), compliance with government regulations, and other healthcare IT initiatives are driving up demand for health IT pros these days. But while their pay inched up last year, health IT professionals' compensation still, for the most part, lags behind IT pros across all industries, according to the InformationWeek 2012 IT Salary Survey.
However, while health IT managers earned smaller paychecks than IT managers across other industries, healthcare CIOs fared better than CIOs in general. The median total compensation for CIOs across all industries in the 2012 survey was $161,000; healthcare CIOs earned $180,000. Healthcare IT staffers also did better than healthcare IT managers, whose increases in base pay and total compensation in 2012 over 2011 were slightly smaller than those seen from 2010 to 2011.
These numbers make sense when considering where organizations are in a variety of compliance-related cycles. From 2010 to 2011, for example, healthcare organizations--and their IT managers--were gearing up and planning for projects ranging from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' EHR Meaningful Use Stage 1 implementation to ICD-10 conversion and compliance with ramped-up Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
During that period, healthcare IT managers saw a slightly larger rise in total compensation than they did during the prior 12 months. From 2011 into 2012, these new projects were well underway at healthcare organizations facing impending deadlines, with small armies of IT talent doing much of the heavy lifting at that point (and with said IT staffers seeing a slightly bigger pay bump at the time).
The larger total compensation earned by healthcare CIOs compared with CIOs across all industries may reflect the level of challenges healthcare organizations are experiencing from an IT perspective. In fact, finding and keeping the needed IT and clinical IT skills to accomplish the multiple, high-profile projects in progress at most healthcare organizations is one of the biggest worries that CIOs have, according to the Health Information and Management Systems Society's (HIMSS) 2012 survey of 302 IT leaders.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said a lack of adequate staffing resources was the top barrier to IT implementation. In previous years, inadequate financial resources had been the No. 1 challenge faced by HIMSS survey respondents in terms of IT barriers. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor has predicted a shortage of 50,000 healthcare IT professionals, based on the extensive healthcare IT-related reform and regulatory mandates underway and expected down the road.
To view highlights from InformationWeek's 2012 healthcare IT salary survey, click through the following slides. For a more in-depth look at all 47 figures, check out the complete InformationWeek Report 2012 IT Salary Survey: Healthcare. (Free registration is required.)
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