Physician Practice Trends – Survey Results
The American Medical Association has published a report presenting the results of its Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. The survey, which focuses on physician practice characteristics, covers the 12-year span of 2012-2024.
The results show that medical practices are:
- increasingly owned by hospitals or other organizations, and not by physicians,
- increasing in size, and
- increasingly likely to be multispecialty
The data shows that small, independent practices are giving way to larger, multi-specialty groups. Between 2012 and 2022, the percentage of physicians who work in private practices dropped 18%, from 60.1% to 42.2%. The trend toward consolidation is accelerating.
The reasons cited for private practices selling to hospitals, private equity firms or insurers include:
- inadequate payment rates,
- costly resources, and
- burdensome regulatory and administrative requirements