Physician practice dealmaking has kept a fast pace through the first half of 2026.
Becker’s tracked 15 physician practice acquisitions in the first three weeks of January alone, and that tally grew to 33 deals by the end of the first quarter, spanning health systems, private equity, insurers and, increasingly, companies with no traditional healthcare delivery background.
Hospital, health system or corporate ownership of physician practices rose from 39% to 59% between 2019 and 2023, while physician employment by those entities climbed from 62% to 78% over roughly the same period. Insurers alone have accounted for about 11% of practice acquisitions since 2019.
Here are five deals that illustrate the different forces driving that activity.
1. Humana’s $1 billion acquisition of MaxHealth
Humana closed its roughly $1 billion acquisition of MaxHealth, a Sarasota, Florida-based primary care network previously owned by private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners’ Best Value Healthcare. The deal builds on other primary care growth at Humana: CenterWell Senior Primary Care added more than 100,000 patients in 2025, a 25% year-over-year increase, and Humana separately acquired Florida-based The Villages Health, adding about 32,000 patients.
The deal is part of a broader payer push into physician ownership. Payer-operated practices made up 4.2% of Medicare primary care services in 2023, up from 0.78% in 2016. Optum, UnitedHealth Group’s physician practice arm, now accounts for 2.71% of the national primary care market by service volume. The American Hospital Association has reported that commercial insurers acquired roughly 40% more physicians than hospitals did over the preceding five years, often in more profitable specialties.
2. Cencora’s $1.1 billion purchase of EyeSouth Partners’ retina business
Cencora, the Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical services company, agreed to acquire EyeSouth Partners’ retina division for $1.1 billion, with affiliated physicians joining Cencora’s existing Retina Consultants of America platform. The deal is the third leg of a physician acquisition spree that has topped $10 billion since January 2025. Cencora bought Retina Consultants of America itself for $4.4 billion in January 2025, then acquired majority equity interests in OneOncology for $5 billion in December 2025.
Cencora’s strategy mirrors moves by other distributors and pharmaceutical-adjacent companies building vertically integrated specialty platforms, including Cardinal Health’s $2.8 billion acquisition of GI Alliance in 2024 and McKesson’s $850 million purchase of Prism Vision in early 2025.
3. Universal Health Services’ restructuring of George Washington University’s physician group
Universal Health Services and George Washington University finalized an agreement on May 26 to restructure GW Medical Faculty Associates, an academic multispecialty group of about 750 physicians across 51 specialties that had accumulated roughly $450 million in deficits by fiscal year 2025, including a $61 million budget overrun that prompted a $20 million emergency loan from the university in 2016. Under the deal, UHS will assume financial responsibility for the group by folding it into a new nonprofit entity, Capital Medical Group, while GW retains its academic and educational affiliations. The arrangement is designed to preserve physician and staff employment as well as existing clinical locations.
4. MUSC Health’s $111 million acquisition of Palmetto Primary Care Physicians
MUSC Health, based in Charleston, S.C., acquired all membership interests in Palmetto Primary Care Physicians for $111 million, effective March 3. Palmetto was South Carolina’s largest independent multispecialty group, with 31 physicians, 95 advanced practitioners and 40 practice locations spanning the Lowcountry, Midlands and Myrtle Beach regions, including primary care, physical therapy, urgent care and specialty clinics. The group will continue to operate as a nonprofit entity within MUSC Health.
5. RadNet’s back-to-back radiology acquisitions in Florida and Maryland
RadNet expanded its imaging network with two deals in quick succession: a roughly $100 million acquisition of Radiology Regional, adding 13 imaging centers in Fort Myers, Fla., and a $29 million acquisition of Chesapeake Medical Imaging, a 14-location practice in Annapolis, Md., that had operated independently for more than 25 years. The deals add to a run of radiology consolidation tracked by Becker’s this year, including Intermountain Health’s acquisition of Las Vegas-based Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging and Strategic Radiology’s acquisitions of Radiology Chartered in Green Bay, Wis., and Central Kentucky Radiology in Lexington.
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