Private practice is becoming a more difficult option for physicians in today's economy.
As of 2022, just 26% of physicians practice privately, according to a report from Avalere.
The number of physicians in private practice has been steadily shrinking, a fact that has many physicians nervous.
So what happens if this trend continues?
"If we don't do something differently in private practice to change the trajectory [of the decline of private practice], in the next 10 to 20 years private practice will become a niche," Paul Berggreen, MD, chief strategy officer of GI Alliance and president of the American Independent Medical Practice Association, told Becker's. "It's not going to die completely, it'll still be there in certain locations in certain specialties in certain geographies. But I do think if we don't do something, it's going to become a niche because the forces that are causing the stressors in independent medicine are not going away."