Defining the Pediatric Radiology Workforce in the United States Using Insurance Claims Data.

Abstract

To determine the number of pediatric radiologists in the United States using professional imaging claims of children between 2016 and 2023 in a private payor claims database. From 2016 to 2023, using private payer claims data (Inovalon Insights, LLC), all claim lines for radiology professional services billed by radiologists were identified. Each claim was assigned a work relative value unit (wRVU) in accordance with the CMS valuation for the claim year. Each radiologist's pediatric and adult wRVUs were calculated annually (radiologist-year) and overall. Pediatric radiologists were defined by ≥50% pediatric wRVUs, with ≥25% and ≥75% thresholds tested as lower and upper limits. Among 109,077 unique radiologists (mean 46,315 unique practicing radiologists per year), 9,198 (8.4%) unique providers met the ≥50% pediatric wRVU threshold over the entire study period. Annual unique pediatric radiologist count decreased from 2,190 (2016) to 2,032 (2023), as did their proportion as a percentage of all radiologists, declining from 6.4% to 4.6%. Using the ≥25% and ≥75% thresholds, the number of unique pediatric radiologists identified for the entire study period was 13,532 (12.4%) and 7,456 (6.8%), respectively. The median percentage of wRVUs attributed to pediatric radiology among nonpediatric radiologists never rose above 0%, across all years and when using any of the three threshold percentages. Using a large claims database, we identified US radiologists dedicating ≥50% of their professional effort to pediatric patients, revealing the number of pediatric radiologists declined from 2016 to 2023, despite rising demand for imaging services.