Study reveals practice owners no longer the physician majority

Less than half of patient care physicians had an ownership stake in their medical practice, according to a newly updated study on physician practice arrangements by the American Medical Association (AMA). This marks the first time that physician practice owners fell below a majority portion of the nation’s patient care physicians since the AMA began documenting practice arrangement trends.

The share of patient care physicians with ownership stakes in a medical practice declined 6 percentage points to 47.1 percent in 2016 from 53.2 percent in 2012. In contrast, the share of patient care physicians with employed positions increased about 5 percentage points to 47.1 percent in 2016 from 41.8 percent in 2012. As a result, there were equal shares of physician employees and physician practice owners in 2016, while 5.9 percent of patient care physicians were independent contractors.