For Members

The House and Senate just approved a new government funding bill that provides $730 million in relief from Medicare physician payment cuts, boosting reimbursements by 1.68% starting on March 9 and lasting through the end of 2024. 
 
STS has vigorously advocated for this relief, yet the total amount is less than what many stakeholders demanded, including STS, 30 members of the U.S. Senate, and nearly 200 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. We will continue to advocate for the elimination of all payment cuts and insist on systematic reforms that eliminate this threat. This includes H.R. 2474, a bipartisan bill with broad support that would create automatic annual inflation adjustments for Medicare physician payments. Contact Congress on this important issue. 
 
Additional Details

• The relief will apply to services rendered between March 9 and Dec. 31, 2024. 
• After applying the relief, Medicare payments will remain 1.69% lower than in 2023. 
• The payment reduction relief will not apply to claims between Jan. 1 and March 8, 2024. 
• On Jan. 1, 2025, an additional reduction of at least 2.93% will occur, absent congressional action, due to the expiration of temporary relief.

If you have questions, contact advocacy@sts.org.

Cardiothoracic surgeons provide tremendous value to the patients and institutions they serve. But understanding their value and translating it into fair compensation has always been challenging. While there are external resources that provide general guidance on surgeon compensation, there are no compensation surveys that capture the nuances of the specialty. Until now.

STS has commissioned Gallagher, a consulting firm with more than four decades of experience in physician compensation and valuation services, to conduct a first-of-its-kind compensation survey in early October to help CT surgeons practicing in the U.S. understand their value in the market specific to their specialty, practice, career stage, and geographic region. Data collected will be kept confidential and will not be shared with STS.

A compensation report, featuring only aggregated data consistent with federal guidelines to ensure data integrity and anonymity, will make it easier for CT surgeons to evaluate employment opportunities and negotiate salaries and benefits.

The compensation report—slated for release January 2024—will be available to STS surgeon members who participate in the survey at no cost, and to STS members and nonmembers who do not participate in the survey for a fee.

How To Participate in the STS Compensation Survey

Non-resident/trainee CT surgeons should have received an email with instructions on how to complete the survey from Gallagher or you can access the survey here. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete.

Participants should have their 2022 W-2 (or equivalent income documentation), compensation plan, and associated annual compensation calculations and productivity (e.g., wRVUs, etc.) reports at hand before they begin. Participants should contact their practice administrator if they do not have access to the required documentation.

Deadline for completing the survey is October 27, 2023.

If you have questions or do not receive an email invitation but wish to participate, email jenna_lambrecht@ajg.com.

Dr. Zach Brennan’s preference for high-stakes careers led him to choose cardiothoracic surgery. He went into the specialty with eyes wide open, knowing that it was not for the faint of heart. Like most CT surgeons, Dr. Brennan is a self-proclaimed workaholic and is excited by the specialty’s rapid innovations and minimally invasive surgery new developments.

Dr. Brennan received the STS Looking to the Future Scholarship, which he said boosted his skills, knowledge, and resolve. Today, he is training in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency program. He unequivocally adds that the mentorship of Tyler Wallen, DO, a general surgeon specializing in cardiac surgery at Geisinger; Jeffrey Jacobs, MD,  pediatric cardiac surgeon and professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Florida; and Anthony Perez-Tamayo, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Loyola University Medical Center,  sold him on cardiothoracic surgery. “I was hooked from Day 1!” he says. “Now, being able to walk a medical student through a procedure early on in residency, teaching some of the same basic things mentors have taught me, was a really surreal moment—a full circle experience that was really special.” 

He is no stranger to extreme challenges. Dr. Brennan spent 14 years working in military and government service as a federal agent in intelligence and law enforcement. He worked on local and global issues: improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, curbed proliferation of missile chips throughout the world, and mastered Arabic. 

Surgery represented the change he was looking for that still fulfilled his drive to respond tactically and strategically to difficult situations. He was awestruck when he first observed aortic surgery with circulatory arrest, a congenital heart transplant, and went on heart procurements. “I think that learning and growing as a surgeon while also facing the complexities of treating CT patients have been challenging, but very welcomed ones.” Outside the OR, the connection to patients hit home and stuck during Dr. Brennan's first residency rotation: a post-operative patient in the cardiac ICU whom he had treated asked him to sign a special heart-shaped pillow. 

Dr. Brennan hopes to build on his interaction thus far with STS, participating in committees in his capacity as a resident and moving on to leadership roles.

With a multitude of interests, sailing, scuba diving, reading, playing guitar, and board games with friends are on top of his favorites list. He prizes traveling and does it with his dog, Korah, whom he has taken to every coast and border of the U.S. 

Catch up with Dr. Brennan on X (formerly Twitter) at @zachjbrennan and watch his recent TEDx Talk.