The physician practice landscape has shifted significantly over the last decade as the industry becomes increasingly consolidated and reimbursement rates fall below the cost of running business.
This combination of pressure has become overwhelming for some independent practices. Becker’s reported 23 physician practice closures in 2025, reflecting continued strain from rising costs, reimbursement challenges and regulatory scrutiny.
Here are six recent physician practice closures and how they reflect ongoing volatility in the industry:
1) Downeast OB-GYN in Bangor, Maine, which opened in 1994, will close July 2, the practice announced in a March 6 Facebook post. In the post, owner Christopher Ramset, MD, said the primary reason for the closure was an inability to recruit new physicians to the private practice.
“With the recent loss of two physician partners and a midwife, I now find myself on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he said in the post. “As much as I wish I could continue, this level of coverage is simply not sustainable long term.”
Staffing issues have been a significant issue across healthcare over the last several years as the U.S. faces a projected shortage of 141,160 full-time equivalent physicians by 2038, according to a December report from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Staffing adequacy in 2038 for OB-GYN practices is expected to reach 86%, according to the report.
Other data shows that physicians who are currently in the workforce are also doing more work as they manage staffing shortages, according to the American Medical Group Association’s “2025 Medical Clinic Staffing Survey” released Nov. 12. Staffing ratios per 10,000 work relative value units saw a 4.8% decrease within primary care specialties, while medical and surgical specialties saw a 2.4% and 1.1% increase, respectively, compared with the year prior. The pace of work continues to accelerate. Nationwide, providers experienced a 1.5% increase in wRVUs and a concurrent 2.3% increase in patient visits over the year prior. Over the past three survey years, wRVUs and visits have increased 5% to 7% overall.
2) Johnson City, Tenn.-based primary care group State of Franklin Healthcare Associates shuttered four primary care clinics as it navigates financial challenges. Highlands Family Medicine in Johnson City; Pediatrics of Bristol (Tenn.); Abingdon (Va.) Primary Care; and OB-GYN Specialists of Kingsport (Tenn.) closed in January. The closures followed SOFHA’s December announcement that it received lending support from Ballad Health to help retire debt and remain independent.
In a Feb. 17 report by CBS affiliate WJHL 11, SOFHA and Ballad confirmed that the solution was “temporary” and that Ballad was not acquiring SOFHA. The move correlates with early signs of growing support for independent practices as more healthcare stakeholders become aware of the negative impact consolidation has on healthcare access. Additionally, some physicians have become drawn to private practice in recent years as they seek more autonomy and independence in their practice.
3) Fatade Health & Medical Center in Martinsville, Va., will close April 29 after nearly two decades of operation. The clinic, led by Ayokunle Fatade, DO, cited ongoing regulatory and law enforcement scrutiny as the reason for the closure. Dr. Fatade said the practice had faced pressure for the past seven years, referencing investigations, surveillance and actions by the Virginia Board of Medicine and a federal task force.
Regulatory burdens have been cited by other physicians as one of the factors contributing to burnout for independent practices. Prior authorization is frequently cited as one of the most burdensome non-clinical tasks that physicians and their teams must manage, as well as other other CMS-mandated reporting requirements.
David Eagle, MD, president of the American Independent Medical Practice Association, told Becker’s that the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System was a major burden for independent physicians. MIPS ties clinician payments to performance, theoretically rewarding quality and penalizing poor outcomes through a performance-based framework in CMS’ Quality Payment Program. There has been significant back and forth between CMS and physician advocacy groups in recent years regarding the points threshold and other aspects of the program.
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