Income Gap in Healthcare Exposes Gender Inequities
(Photo Credit: Sorbetto // Getty Images)
By Melissa Tejada
The healthcare field denies women proper compensation, according to multiple studies. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the Harvard Business Review (HRB) have all published data confirming this disparity.
A 2018 study done by Medscape found that “across the basic science disciplines, women earned 90 cents per dollar earned by men and 77 cents per dollar across clinical science disciplines.”
Sareh Parangi, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and president of the Association of Women Surgeons, stated in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons that “unequal pay for women often begins with their first job and persists for the duration of their careers.” Another study in Annals of Internal Medicine determined that the average starting salary for men was almost $17,000 higher than that for newly graduated women.
Some Lehman alums who work in healthcare in New York find the pay inequity upsetting. John Carlos Rodriguez, Lehman alum in Nutrition and a current senior in community health education at Brooklyn College, stated that these inequities are “disgusting.” As a solution, Rodriguez suggested that there “be petitions made or some kind of movement to increase pay equity.”
New York University (NYU) nursing student Mariely Olivo said income inequity is something not widely discussed but fairly known. She disclosed that “one of my male friends, who graduated from the same school as me and has the same credentials, actually makes around $800 more biweekly. Although $800 doesn’t seem like much, it’s like saying you aren’t as qualified because of your gender.”
The largest factor in the income gap is the units used by hospitals and insurers to compensate physicians for the work that they do. These relative value units (RVU) are “a standard to determine the amount to pay doctors depending on the productivity,” according to a Medical Billing Services review. “It is a number that defines the volume of work doctors perform when treating patients for all procedures and services covered under the Physician Fee Schedule.”
Parangi stated that “the perception is that women generate fewer RVUs because they’re lazy. In reality, if you look at the specialties where there are a high percentage of women, such as obstetrics and gynecology, which is 54 percent women, and compare it to urology, which is about 8 percent women, you see dramatic disparities in RVUs for analogous procedures.”
RVUs, units that are used by Medicare to determine the fee payment for doctors depending on the procedure performed, are decided by a committee that has 30 voting members, only two of which are female. A paper published in 2017 in Gynecologic Oncology showed that for gynecologic and urologic procedures 84 percent of procedures were compensated at a higher rate for male-specific procedures.
This issue exists globally. An international survey conducted by Medscape showed “primary care physicians in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Brazil, and Mexico reported similar gender pay gaps, with female doctors in those countries making 20-29 percent less than their male colleagues.”
The survey also demonstrated that “specialists reported even wider gaps in pay by gender, ranging from 19 percent in Spain and 47 percent in Germany.” As men climb the medical ranks, they are increasingly compensated for their work. However, women’s salaries do not rise to the same level, even if all factors are nearly identical.
Indeed, statistically female doctors outperform their male peers. A 2019 Medscape study demonstrates that of 1.5 million Medicare hospitalizations in the U.S., female physicians had significantly lower mortality and re-hospitalization rates than their male peers. Still, their pay is significantly lower.
“We often are not aware that there are others with the same qualifications as us that are getting paid more to do the same job.”
HBR’s solution is enhancing salary data. Regular pay audits and greater pay transparency would force institutions to prove why male physicians with the same experience and qualifications as their female colleagues deserve higher pay.
Former Lehman nursing major, Carmen Martinez, now an RN at New York-Presbyterian, agreed. While she said she was not aware of the gap between healthcare workers, she suggested that institutions “support pay transparency. When we aren’t able to discuss our salaries, we often are not aware that there are others with the same qualifications as us that are getting paid more to do the same job with the same demands.”
Premed In the Time of COVID-19
Lehman College is home to over 500 registered premedical students. (Photo credit: Perla Tolentino)
By Natalie Nunez
With the recent coronavirus pandemic crisis, the preparation and application process for pre-medical students who hope to enroll in medical school has changed. Applicants have had to adjust to constrained circumstances, from taking online lectures and lab courses to preparing for a shortened admission exam.
Lehman is home to 500 active pre-med students, and those who plan to start medical school in 2021 will be applying this year. Dr. Scott Calvin, director of Lehman’s pre-health program, said, “I expect that in this environment some of the people who were planning to apply to medical schools this year will decide to wait a year.”
The application process usually begins in May and takes nearly one year, but this one will be unlike any past cycle. Application portals opened on May 4 and 5 as planned. However, allopathic schools will now begin reviewing applications on July 10, rather than June 26, as previously scheduled.
Medical schools traditionally prefer letter grades and for students to take prerequisite classes, particularly in-person lab courses, but these standards will change amid COVID-19 circumstances.
A recent Association of American Medical Colleges survey indicated that 78 percent of participating schools will accept pass/fail grades for prerequisite classes taken between January and August of this year, and 76 percent will accept online lab courses for the spring 2020 semester.
Students planning to volunteer or shadow doctors this spring and summer also face challenges, as most clinics and physicians have cut non-essential personnel including students, because of social distancing. This might present gaps in students’ applications.
As the COVID-19 outbreak had led to the closure of many medical labs and related facilities, some Lehman students who were planning to do research to gain further science-related experience will not be able to do so.
“I was supposed to work at the NIH this summer and increase my immunology experience. It could also have led to several publications, but the pandemic has caused them to cancel the research,” said Ezekiel Olumuyide, a 20-year-old junior biochemistry major.
The MCAT, which can take months to prepare for, has also been adjusted due to the pandemic. The exam was shortened from seven and a half hours to five hours and 45 minutes, by eliminating unscored portions of the exam that would have been used to create future exams to allow for more sittings per day and reduce the number of examinees in the room.
Sabrina, a recent Lehman graduate who will be taking the MCAT this year, shared her concerns with the recent admission test changes, “It can be a disadvantage for those who have practiced taking the longer exam. Now we will have to change our approach to the test.”
She added: “All of the changes have definitely caused added anxiety. My set plan has had to change to accommodate the climate.”
Test dates in April and May were canceled and more dates in June and September were added to compensate for the cancelations. Examinees will also be allowed to wear gloves and face masks, to help avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
Applicant interviews, which begin as early as September, will most likely be conducted virtually for the upcoming cycle, as medical college campuses are now closed indefinitely. In a March 19 statement, the AAMC encouraged medical schools and teaching hospitals to conduct online interviews for the time being.
Despite the feeling that the application process can be an even more stressful process with the adjustments, Lehman students are still motivated to enter the medical field.
Kristian Punu, a 21-year-old junior majoring in biomedical science said, “The pandemic and its repercussions have cultivated my aspiration to use medicine as a platform to advocate for the less fortunate. People living in underserved areas tend to be more affected by this negatively.”
Dr. Calvin encourages those students who planned to apply this cycle to continue moving forward in the process. “Doing so will work in your favor, but also shows consideration and sympathy to those who truly need to wait for a year.”
Online Club Events Provide Socializing While Social Distancing
(Photo Credit: Freepik)
By Kadija Doumbia
“We try to have Zoom calls every week with my members on a group basis,” said Lehman club president of the African & Caribbean Association Anna-Maria Jack, senior anthropology and Earth Science major. “I think these events help students with de-stressing and being connected with one another. Even though it is not an ideal situation, the events at least allow us to stay connected at these times.”
Club life is an important aspect of being a student at Lehman. Based on statistics from the Lehman website, an estimated 2,000 out of 14,787 students belong to a club. Lehman has over 50 student clubs available, based on a range of social, personal hobby, academic and religious interests. Club events were typically held in person for both club members and non-affiliated students to attend. But with Zoom now being the new normal, only a few clubs at Lehman have made the transition to hosting online events. As COVID-19 quarantine continues into its fourth month, online club activities give students the chance to reconnect with others.
The Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Club (CCSD) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) conduct weekly recurring events, with the CCSD hosting online evening Zumba classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the MSA hosting Tuesday evening trivia sessions.
The Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) have also been conducting weekly events in addition to providing students professional lessons and providing business opportunities.
“We’ve talked about resumes and interview tips,” said 21-year-old grad student Sarah Persaud who is pursuing a master’s degree in accounting. “During the past months we’ve advertised on our social media about main events such as our Live Mock Interview and Budgeting Workshop.”
“My favorite aspect about ALPFA’s virtual club events was that it was easier to access professionals in Fortune 500 companies who could easily attend our events from their living room,” Persaud continued. “Our members gave feedback that the weekly meetings have helped them at the beginning of Quarantine. Our members were happy to be able to see each other and engage in conversations.”
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, video conferencing is one of the richer forms of telecommunication since it provides a window onto speakers’ environments and facial expressions while reconnecting those separated by different locations or job times.
Nonetheless, most social clubs at Lehman have closed as a result of the spread of COVID-19 reaching New York City. Subsequently, the campus has been closed in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus.
“COVID-19 pretty much ended the nutrition club. We had many things planned for the nutrition club but because of the unexpected virus we had to cancel all of our events,” said 21-year-old senior club president of the Nutrition Club and dietetics, foods, and nutrition major Adrian Henriquez.
With the prospect of distance learning extending into the fall semester, according to CNN, existing clubs at Lehman may now have to make the transition to online hosting if they want to keep their activities going into the next semester and beyond. In the meantime, online socializing and video conferencing continues to be a means of keeping Lehman students together, while they remain apart.