PRIVATE PRACTICE MEDICINE

• According to the US Census, there were approximately 220,890 physician offices, as of 2012, the most recent year available (screenshot here if link does not work).
• Another US Census report shows that of those 220,890 physician offices, 177,644 of them are single unit establishments, which may equate to private practices, but that is not entirely clear.
• According to the American Medical Association (AMA), employed physicians (47.4%) now outnumber those owning their own practice (45.9%).
• However, 10% of those employed physicians are employed by practices that are wholly owned by physicians, bringing the percentage of physicians working in private practice settings to 54%.
• The same study shows that "65% of surgical subspecialists own their practices, as do 53.8% of ob-gyns, about 52% of internal medicine subspecialists and almost 51% of radiologists," while only 26.2% of emergency physicians own their own practices.
• And AMA report on the economic impact of US physicians states that 16% of physicians have a solo practice, while single specialty groups accounted for 42.8% of physicians.
• Some of the top medical specialties, in terms of number of physicians, are pediatrics, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and psychiatry.