A107 EXAMINING FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO GENDER PAY DIFFERENCES AMONG ONTARIO PHYSICIANS IN PROCEDURAL SUBSPECIALTIES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE, INCLUDING GASTROENTEROLOGY

TL;DR

This study finds that male physicians in Ontario earn significantly more than female physicians in procedural specialties like gastroenterology, partly due to differences in work hours and procedural days.

Contribution

The study specifically examines gender pay gaps in procedural subspecialties of internal medicine, including gastroenterology, and identifies contributing factors like work hours and procedural days.

Findings

Male physicians in procedural subspecialties earned $391,734.76 more on average than female physicians.

Male gastroenterologists earned $154,698.86 more on average than female gastroenterologists.

Male physicians worked more procedural days and after-hours/weekend billings compared to female physicians.

Abstract

Prior research has shown that gender pay inequity exists among physicians, with little improvement in the last few years. A study examining the physician gender pay gap in Ontario showed that women physicians earned 13.5% less than men daily, even after correcting for factors such as practice characteristics, specialty and rurality.

We aimed to identify factors contributing to gender-based differential billing among physicians in Ontario, with a specific focus on providers in procedural sub-specialties of internal medicine including gastroenterology.

We performed a cross-sectional study using data from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years. OHIP billings were used to estimate differences in gross payments between male and female physicians in procedural subspecialties of internal medicine, including gastroenterology, cardiology and respirology. Physicians who submitted claims to OHIP were included. Pay gaps were calculated annually. Chi-square test was used to calculate differences between categorical variables, and t-test for continuous variables.

A total of 3600 physicians were included in the study sample (1212 [33.7%] women and 2388 [66.3%] men). Male physicians in procedural subspecialties earned an average of $391,734.76 more than female physicians (p<0.001) with male gastroenterologists earning an average of $154,698.86 more (p<0.001). The total number of procedural days was higher for men (49 vs 25; p<0.001), with male gastroenterologists having more endoscopy days as compared to their female counterparts (134 vs 108; p<0.001). Male physicians in procedural subspecialties had higher percentage of days with after-hours billings (8.5 vs 5.4; p< 0.001) and weekend billings (4.2 vs 3.5; p<0.01) compared to female physicians, and were less likely to work part-time (343 men [14%] vs 334 women [28%]; p<0.001).

Our study noted significant differences in gross payments between men and women physicians in procedural specialties of internal medicine including gastroenterology, which may be explained by total hours worked, after-hours work and number of procedural days.

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