Physician Ownership is No Longer the Norm Across Practice Types

There are more physician-employees than physician-owners across the practice landscape, according to new data from the American Medical Association—the first time under 50% of patient care physicians have an ownership stake in their medical practice since the AMA started keeping track. While the data do not reflect urgent care specifically (including this market as “other”), they do show the share of physicians with ownership stake in a medical practice fell to 47% in 2016. That’s 6% lower than in 2012, the last time the survey was conducted. Surgical subspecialties had the highest share of owners at 59%, followed by radiology (56%). Emergency medicine had the lowest share of owners (28%) and the highest proportion of independent contractors (25%).