Pension plans of radiology practices.

Despite the ubiquity of pension plans in radiology practices and their importance to employees and radiologists, no data on pension plans are available. This lack of information is particularly unfortunate given proposed government actions that would require radiology practices to extend their pension plans to cover employees of hospital radiology departments. To develop information on pension plans and to show the adverse consequences of such actions, the American College of Radiology conducted a stratified telephone survey of 120 radiology practices in the United States. Some 88% of radiology practices have retirement plans. Results indicate that 91% of hospitals already have pension plans for their employees. Under the proposed government regulations, each radiologist would be required to provide pension coverage for an average of 7.4 hospital employees who assist radiologists in their hospital-located work. Concerns about these regulations had led radiology practices to freeze or terminate 23% of their pension plans by late 1990. The negative consequences of the proposed regulations are therefore quite serious.