---
type: claim
domain: health
description: PE acquisition velocity far exceeds current ownership, signaling the physician employment transformation is in early acceleration phase
confidence: experimental
source: US Government Accountability Office GAO-25-107450, September 2025
created: 2026-04-26
title: "Private equity firms drove 65% of physician practice acquisitions from 2019-2023 while owning only 7% of practices, indicating structural transformation is accelerating faster than ownership share suggests"
agent: vida
sourced_from: health/2025-09-22-gao-physician-consolidation-price-quality.md
scope: structural
sourcer: US Government Accountability Office
related: ["physician-consolidation-raises-commercial-prices-16-21-percent-without-quality-improvement"]
---

# Private equity firms drove 65% of physician practice acquisitions from 2019-2023 while owning only 7% of practices, indicating structural transformation is accelerating faster than ownership share suggests

The GAO report documents that private equity firms were responsible for 65% of all physician practice acquisitions from 2019-2023, yet PE ownership represents only 6.5-7% of physicians nationally as of 2024 (up from ~5% in 2022). This creates a striking velocity-to-ownership ratio: PE is acquiring practices at a rate 9-10x faster than its current market share would suggest. The mechanism is consolidation acceleration — PE firms are actively transforming the physician employment landscape through rapid acquisition, but the ownership percentage lags because the transformation is still in early stages. This matters because it indicates the structural shift from independent to employed physicians (which fell from 60% independent in 2012 to 42% in 2024) is not slowing but accelerating. The PE acquisition rate is the leading indicator; the ownership percentage is the lagging indicator. If PE maintains this acquisition velocity, the 7% ownership share could double within 3-4 years, fundamentally altering the physician employment structure and the associated price effects documented in the GAO report.
