The cardiology workforce is under mounting strain as rising patient demand collides with physician shortages, reimbursement pressure and shifts in care delivery. Longer wait times, an aging clinician base and tightening margins are forcing health systems to rethink staffing models, compensation strategies and team-based care to preserve patient access in the decade ahead.
Here are five trends shaping the cardiology workforce:
1. Cardiologist shortages are worsening access and driving longer wait times: Cardiology faces an ongoing workforce shortage that is increasingly affecting patient access. Wait times for a general cardiovascular visit increased 26% from 2017 to 2022, according to a survey cited by the American College of Cardiology.
Patients now wait an average of 32.7 days to see a cardiologist, and nearly 50% of U.S. counties, most of them rural, do not have a single practicing cardiologist.
2. Compensation declines and reimbursement cuts mold cardiology economics: Cardiologists saw a 4% decline in compensation from 2023 to 2024, with annual pay dropping from $525,000 to $506,000, according to Medscape’s Cardiologist Compensation Report 2025.
At the same time, CMS reduced the physician fee conversion factor by 2.83% for 2025, adding financial pressure to practices already facing rising labor and supply costs. While compensation varies widely by subspecialty, with interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists earning significantly more than pediatric cardiologists, the broader reimbursement environment is tightening margins across the specialty.
3. An aging cardiology workforce is widening the long-term supply gap: Cardiology is facing a structural workforce challenge as retirees outpace new entrants. In 2019, 26.5% of cardiologists were aged 61 or older, and projections show the specialty could lose 547 cardiologists per year by 2031 due to retirements and a fixed number of fellowship positions.
Leaders told Becker’s expanding care-team models will be critical to preserving access. “With a net loss of cardiologists each year, we must empower cardiovascular APPs as integral care team members,” said Warren Levy, MD, cardiologist and immediate past president and chief medical officer at Arlington-based Virginia Heart.
4. Cardiology procedures migrate to outpatient and ASC settings: The number of single-specialty cardiology ASCs quadrupled from 55 in 2018 to 221 in 2023, and 234 Medicare-certified ASCs now offer cardiovascular services. CMS has accelerated this migration by adding more cardiac procedures, including angioplasty, stenting and pacemaker placement, to the ASC-eligible list. As a result, outpatient cardiac procedures are projected to rise 25% by 2035, compared with 8% growth for inpatient procedures.
5. Leaders zero in on the biggest threats to workforce sustainability : The costs of administrative burden, scheduling pressures and inadequate support are coming into view for cardiology leaders.. Keith Churchwell, MD, immediate past president of the American Heart Association, told Becker’ssystems must properly resource cardiovascular teams and improve EHR tools, so cardiologists can focus on a growing and complex patient population. Other leaders emphasized valuing physicians across career stages, empowering cardiovascular advanced practice providers as integral care team members and prioritizing workforce well-being to support long-term retention and timely patient access.
