82% of radiologists and other physicians now employed by corporate entities

Approximately 82% of U.S. radiologists and other physicians are now employed by hospitals, insurers, private equity firms or other corporate entities, according to new research shared Wednesday. 

This leaves only about 18% of docs practicing in physician-owned settings as of Jan. 1, with corporations employing an additional 48,000-plus docs over the past two years. During the same period in 2024 and 2025, hospitals acquired another 13,900 physician practices, now accounting or about 64% of all practices in the U.S. 

The findings come from a new analysis conducted by the Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere Health, released on May 13. 

“The corporate takeover of physician practices continues unabated, causing fundamental changes in how physicians practice medicine in this country,” Kelly Kenney, CEO of the institute, a not-for-profit lobbying group founded in 2006 with funds from litigation against for-profit health insurers. “Now is the time to adopt policies to protect against corporate interference in physicians’ medical decision-making. Corporate profits must never take precedence over patients.”

Avalere utilized the IQVIA OneKey database, containing physician and practice location information on hospital and health system ownership. The Physician Advocacy Institute has released these reports every other year since 2018, with the last one coming in 2024, when about 78% of medical doctors worked for corporate entities.

Corporations continue to acquire physician practices at a faster clip than hospitals, the institute noted. Out of the nearly 14,000 groups acquired since the last report in 2024, about 8,000 went to corporations including health insurers, private equity firms and large pharmacy chains. This represents a more than 10% increase in practice ownership, Avalere’s analysis found, versus a nearly 8% increase for hospitals. Despite this growth in corporate practice ownership, overall doc employment by these entities remained flat, growing by less than 1%, the study found. 

“This raises the question of whether private equity firms and other corporate owners are shedding physicians from practices post-acquisition,” Kenney added. 

Hospitals and health systems appeared to drive most physician employment gains over the last two years, adding about 44,000 physicians to their payrolls, an 8.2% increase. The Physician Advocacy Institute also highlighted data from a previous survey it conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago. It found that most employed docs feel that ownership changes negatively impact patient care and physician autonomy. PAI said it plans to update the survey later this spring. 

About 253,000 additional physicians became employees of hospitals or other corporate entities between 2018 and 2026. Corporations acquired about 85,000 additional practices over the eight-year period. In the latest data, corporate ownership (33%) continued to outweigh hospital ownership (31%). More details about the research can be found here.