More physicians are joining hospital- or private equity-owned practices instead of independent groups, according to an American Medical Association analysis.
The report found 42.2% of physicians were in private practice last year, which is an 18 percentage point drop from 2012. Over the same time period, hospital-owned practices became more popular, accounting for 23.4% of physicians in 2012 to 34.5% in 2024. The number of physicians directly employed by the hospital doubled in the last 12 years to 12%.
“The share of doctors working in practices wholly owned by physicians is unraveling under compounding pressure,” Bruce Scott, MD, president of the AMA, said in a news release. “The cumulative impact of burdensome regulations, rising financial strain and relentless cuts in payment pose a direct threat to the sustainability of private practices.”
Inflation has hit private practices hard and Medicaid physician pay has dropped 33% in the last 25 years, according to the report.
The AMA report also found:
- Around 6.5% of physicians are in private equity-owned practices, up from 4.5% in 2022.
- Independent physicians most often cited the following reasons for selling their practices:
- inadequate pay: 70.8%
- need for more access to costly resources: 65%
- payer regulatory burden and administrative requirements: 63.6%
- The percentage of physicians in private practice by specialty:
- Cardiology: 31%
- Radiology: 47%
- Orthopedic surgery: 54%
- Ophthalmology: 70%
- Other surgical subspecialties: 51%
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