Number of physicians working for small practices drops below 50% for the first time, AMA says
A new report from the American Medical Association (AMA) reveals that physicians across the country are leaving private practice, and independent doctors now account for less than half of most specialties.
The policy perspective piece takes a look at long-term trends, where the AMA said physician practices “are increasingly owned by hospitals or other organizations and not by physicians.”
Further, modern provider groups are “increasingly likely to include physicians in a variety of specialties, not just one.”
The report looks back to data from 2012, where the number of physicians in private practice was 18 points higher than it is now, according to 2024 data. Currently, 42.2% of physicians surveyed by the AMA own their own office or are part of a small independent physician group.
When zooming in on physicians who work at practices with 10 or fewer doctors, the number in 2024 stands at 47%, which the AMA said marks the first drop below half. In 2012, 61.4% of physicians worked in small practices.
According to outside data cited by the AMA, in the 1980s, roughly 80% of all medical doctors worked for small practices, equating to a 33% drop over some 40 years.
The rise of multispecialties
Slowly, single specialty practices are becoming a thing of the past. Currently, the total number of physicians working at single specialty practices sits at 27.7%, the AMA said, whereas multispecialty providers have more physicians under their employ at a rate roughly 9 percentage points higher.
“The share of doctors working in practices wholly owned by physicians is unraveling under compounding pressures,” AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, said in a statement.
As for the root cause, Scott blames “burdensome regulations, rising financial strain, and relentless cuts in payment poses a dire threat to the sustainability of private practices.”
“After adjusting for inflation in practice costs, Medicare physician payment has fallen 33% over the past quarter century, which has severely destabilized private practices and jeopardized patients’ access to care. Payment updates are necessary for physicians to continue to practice independently,” he added.
The full report is available here.
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