The corporatization of medical practice is expanding rapidly.
Cardiology, gastroenterology and primary care are losing independent practices at a pace that separates them from the rest of the field, driven by a combination of Medicare payment erosion, private equity consolidation and hospital acquisition pressure.
Between 2012 and 2024, the share of physicians working in private practices dropped 18 percentage points, from 60.1% to 42.2%, according to the AMA’s Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. But the specialty-level breakdown tells a sharper story than the headline number.
Cardiology, gastroenterology and primary care are losing independent practices at a pace that separates them from the rest of the field, driven by a combination of Medicare payment erosion, private equity consolidation and hospital acquisition pressure.
Between 2012 and 2024, the share of physicians working in private practices dropped 18 percentage points, from 60.1% to 42.2%, according to the AMA’s Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. But the specialty-level breakdown tells a sharper story than the headline number.
Cardiology, gastroenterology and primary care are losing independent practices at a pace that separates them from the rest of the field, driven by a combination of Medicare payment erosion, private equity consolidation and hospital acquisition pressure.
In cardiology only 30.7% of physician are in private practice.
General surgery: 31.7% of surgeons are in private practice.
Emergency medicine: 33.2% of EM physicians are in private practice
Primary care: 38.1-42.2% of primary care physician are in private practice, with pediatrics at 38.1%, internal medicine at 38.9% and family practice at 42.2%.
Gastroenterology:
While GI does not appear in the AMA’s specialty-level private practice breakdown, acquisition data points to increasing consolidation. Gastroenterology saw PE penetration rates rise from 7.6% to 13.1% across metropolitan statistical areas studied between 2012 and 2021, the steepest increase of any specialty tracked, according to a 2023 study published in the National Library of Medicine.