The share of practices owned by hospitals, health systems or other corporate entities surged from 39% to 59% between 2019 and 2023 alone. Physician employment by those same entities climbed from 62% to 78% over the same period, according to a December 2025 report from the Progressive Policy Institute.
“Physicians’ abandonment of independent practices will continue and probably accelerate over the next decade, despite its undesirable impact on autonomy,” Shadi Jarjous, MD, chief of the division of hospital medicine at Lehigh Valley Health Network, told Becker’s. “This is mainly due to the unsustainable increased demand on physicians regarding productivity, efficiency, and fiscal responsibility with less resources, which is driven by the continuous decline in payment and the increase in cost of overhead and supply chain. This disparity has a net negative impact on the work-life balance for physicians, a group that historically has always been asked to stretch their limits, to generate an adequate margin to sustain their business.”
Five more practices changed hands in May:
1. Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University and King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services reached a deal May 26 to restructure the university’s physician practice group arrangement. The deal transitions financial responsibility of GWU’s struggling physician practice group, Medical Facility Associates, to Universal, who will fold the group into a new nonprofit entity controlled by UHS, called Capital Medical Group.
2. Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Health entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Florida Heart Associates, an independent cardiology practice serving Southwest Florida. Florida Heart Associates will become a Lee Health subsidiary and join the Lee Health Heart Institute, with its Fort Myers and Cape Coral offices and ASC transitioning to Lee Health facilities.
3. New Providence, N.J.-based PRISM Vision Group has closed a transaction with Retina Macula Institute. Retina Macula Institute, founded by Ron Gallemore, MD, PhD, is an ophthalmology practice with locations in Los Angeles and South Bay, Calif.
5. Dawson Med, an independent primary and urgent care practice, acquired Batish Family Medicine in Leland, N.C., effective April 1, retaining the full staff of the former practice. Batish Family Medicine was founded in 1998 by Sanjay Batish, MD, who is retiring from direct patient care and relocating to Raleigh, N.C., to care for his parents.
5. Miami-based Pediatrica Health Group has acquired a long-established pediatric practice in Westchester, Fla. The acquired practice is led by Juan Ruiz-Unger, MD, who has provided pediatric care in the Westchester area for more than 40 years.
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