Studies Conducted at Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute on Managed Care Recently Reported (Increasing-Yet Varying-Radiologist Workforce Attrition Across Subspecialties): Managed Care

2026 MAR 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Managed Care are presented in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Reston, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Prior work identified greater workforce attrition among subspecialist radiologists than among generalist radiologists. Further variation among subspecialties could yield gaps in patient access to subspecialty radiologic care.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, “To evaluate associations of individual radiologist subspecialties with workforce attrition. This retrospective study used a subset of subspecialist radiologists (analyzed by individual radiologist-year observations) from an earlier study of a national sample of Medicare-enrolled radiologists from 2014 to 2022. The prior analysis determined radiologist characteristics, practice characteristics, and designations of radiologist attrition (i.e., a clinically active radiologist’s workforce exit based on lack of subsequent claims in a Medicare fee-for-service-dataset or a commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid dataset). The present analysis assigned radiologists to one of seven subspecialities (abdominal imaging, breast imaging, cardiothoracic imaging, musculoskeletal imaging, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, vascular and interventional radiology [VIR]) using Medicare fee-for-service claims data, weighted by work relative value units, and a classification based on the Neiman Imaging Types of Service. Independent associations with attrition were identified by multivariable logistic regression analysis. Nonlinear regression models were used to estimate attrition as a function of years of practice and thereby estimate mean career lengths. The analysis included 159,490 radiologist-years for 29,770 subspecialist radiologists. The attrition rate over the study period was 2.2% and varied across subspecialties from 1.0% (VIR) to 4.3% (cardiothoracic imaging). Year-by-year attrition rates increased from 1.4% in 2014 to 2.7% in 2022 and also increased over time for each subspecialty (percentage-point increase ranging from 0.4% [musculoskeletal imaging] to 2.1% [cardiothoracic imaging]). Adjusted odds of attrition, compared with abdominal imaging, were significantly higher for breast imaging (OR=1.31) and cardiothoracic imaging (OR=1.81), significantly lower for VIR (OR=0.78), and not significantly different for other subspecialties. Mean estimated career length was 1.1 years and 1.5 years greater for men than for women among academic and nonacademic radiologists, respectively; these gender differences were smaller within individual subspecialties (academic: 0.4-0.6 years; nonacademic: 0.2-0.5 years). Attrition increased over time for each subspecialty but varied among subspecialties.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Recruitment and retention initiatives are needed broadly across the workforce to avoid departure cycles that potentially exacerbate individual subspecialty shortages.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Increasing-Yet Varying-Radiologist Workforce Attrition Across Subspecialties. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2026. American Journal of Roentgenology can be contacted at: Amer Roentgen Ray Soc, 44211 Slatestone Ct, Leesburg, VA, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Chi-Mei Liu, Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, Reston, VA. Additional authors for this research include Eric W. Christensen, Jay R. Parikh and Elizabeth Y. Rula.

Publisher contact information for the American Journal of Roentgenology is: Amer Roentgen Ray Soc, 44211 Slatestone Ct, Leesburg, VA, USA.

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