Part B News Quotes John Leardi on AMA’s Physician Practice Survey
Buttaci Leardi & Werner member John Leardi was quoted throughout an article in Part B News titled “AMA Survey: Private Practice Keeps Declining; Hospitals Pick Up.” The article, published June 16, discusses the results of an AMA survey that finds a continued decline in practices owned by their physicians.
The AMA’s Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, taken biennially since 2012, reports that 42.2% of physician practices were in private practices in 2024, down from 46.7% in 2022, and 18 points lower than in 2012.
Furthermore, about 35% of physician respondents said their practices were owned by hospitals or health systems, up from 31% in 2022 and from 23% in 2012.
Another 12.2% of physician respondents said they were contractors or employees of such systems, and 6.5% said their practices were owned by a private equity group.
Leardi tells Part B News that he expects that, “as the M&A activity in this market driven by institutional investors continues to explode,” that number will increase substantially in future surveys as the capital investment required to start a practice puts a heavy burden on owners.
“Look at how complex billing and coding and documentation requirements have become,” Leardi says. “Medicare and just about every commercial payer has thousands upon thousands of pages of clinical coding and documentation guidelines. Just staying abreast of all of that requires full-time [oversight].”
He also cites the need for financial support to cover the increasing technology requirements, from medical equipment to telehealth to “iPads in the waiting room,” and the increased investments in patient experience just to stay level with industry standards.
Despite these headwinds, Leardi sees ways in which practices can stay private, or at least stay on top of the ownership model.
“Some of my clients are taking the same model that the private equity firms use and putting smaller versions of it together,” Leardi says. “Maybe their practice is from the beginning split into two entities — a clinical practice and a management company — and they’re using that management company to go out and affiliate with or even acquire other groups.”
The full article can be read at Part B News (subscription required).
- Posted on: Jun 20 2025