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Table 1 Descriptive statistics of key variables

From: Gender composition in the work environment and physicians’ income from Medicare Part B fee-for-service payments: evidence from longitudinal data

 

Women

Nobs = 893,646

Nphy = 99,294

Men

Nobs = 2,449,602

Nphy = 272,178

 

Mean

Median

S.D

Mean

Median

S.D

Key outcome variables

 Medicare payments, all services (thousands)

99.55

50.37

229.78

172.93

91.91

344.07

 log(Medicare payments, all services, USD)

10.73

10.83

1.26

11.34

11.43

1.23

 Medicare payments, physician services, (thousands)

63.74

30.43

144.69

112.35

55.35

245.11

 log(Medicare payments, physician services, USD)

9.81

10.39

2.56

10.45

10.99

2.46

 Number of unique patients per year

377.55

230.00

558.00

577.61

358.00

799.49

 log(number of unique Medicare patients per year)

5.39

5.44

1.04

5.83

5.88

1.05

 Medicare payments/patient, all services, USD

297.42

205.09

494.49

370.57

247.91

619.14

 log(Medicare payments/patient, all services, USD)

5.34

5.33

0.77

5.52

5.52

0.83

 Medicare payments/patient, physician services, USD

204.94

152.86

299.51

249.45

174.96

415.58

 log(Medicare payments/patient, physician services, USD)

4.72

5.04

1.46

4.88

5.17

1.48

Key independent variables

 Share of women in the specialty (excluding self)

0.34

0.36

0.11

0.27

0.26

0.12

 Share of women in the practice (excluding self)

0.30

0.30

0.24

0.23

0.22

0.22

Other physician characteristics

 Share of physicians working in …

      

 … solo practices [1 physician]

0.11

–

–

0.12

–

–

 … small group practices (2–10 physicians)

0.30

–

–

0.30

–

–

 … large group practices (11 + physicians)

0.59

–

–

0.58

–

–

 Share of physicians who have …

      

 … ever switched specialties

0.05

–

–

0.07

–

–

 … ever switched practices

0.28

  

0.24

  

 … never switched specialties or practices

0.69

–

–

0.71

–

–

Patient characteristics

 Average patient risk score

1.60

1.38

0.79

1.71

1.53

0.78

 Average patient age

70.60

72.00

5.51

71.50

72.00

4.85

 Fraction of patients who are female

0.66

0.63

0.15

0.56

0.56

0.12

 Fraction of patients who are non-whitea

0.24

0.18

0.18

0.22

0.16

0.18

 Fraction of patients who are dual-eligibleb

0.28

0.24

0.19

0.27

0.23

0.18

  1. Authors’ analysis using 2012–2020 CMS Physician Utilization and Payment Data. Each observation is a (physician, year). Nobs is the number of observations; Nphy is the number of unique physicians. All variables (payments, patients, etc.) account for only Medicare Part B fee-for-service activities of a physician within a calendar year as reported by CMS. Payments for “all services” include those for all HCPCS service codes; payments for “physician services” only include those for services rendered by a physician, excluding those for laboratory work, tests and imaging, vaccination, and similar services. All monetary values are converted to real 2020 dollars to adjust for inflation. All patient characteristics are calculated by the CMS, included in the source data, and reflect the average values among a given physician’s patients in a given calendar year. Patient risk scores are measured using the Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) risk score. The score for an individual patient can range from 0 to over 50, but the absolute value is not meaningful. This score is constructed for risk adjustment purposes, and only relative values and comparisons are relevant
  2. a Variable has missing values in the source data. N = 697,591 for women physicians, and N = 2,099,731 for men physicians
  3. b Variable has missing values in the source data. N = 750,559 for women physicians, and N = 2,232,360 for men physicians
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Human Resources for Health

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