While around 77% of physicians remain employed, emerging data show that an increasing number of them may be eyeing independent practice — and this shift is increasingly evident in cardiology.
"A growing proportion of our business is employed cardiologists who want to start their own private practice and leave employment," Alex Struck, chief growth officer and co-founder of CardioOne, told Becker's.
Houston-based CardioOne is a cardiology-focused management services organization that specifically supports both existing independent and employed cardiologists who are looking to transition into private practice.
"We started working with existing, independent groups and, as we evolved as a company, we started getting more and more interest from employed cardiologists who, for one reason or another, wanted to leave to start a private practice," Mr. Struck said.
A survey conducted by CardioOne found that 30% of currently employed cardiologists are considering moving into private practice, and 74% said that they wanted greater autonomy over clinical and administrative decisions, according to Mr. Struck.
"They're increasingly becoming aware that there is compensation upside from being independent," he added. "It used to be different, but in recent years, independent compensation has outpaced employed compensation, 60% of the cardiologists that are employed today said they want more opportunities for profit sharing."
According to Medscape's "Physician Compensation Report 2023," self-employed physicians reported $374,000 yearly salaries on average, compared with $344,000 for employed physicians.
CardioOne does not acquire, own or employ any of the practices it works with, Mr. Struck said. Rather, it partners with groups of cardiologists to support every other aspect of starting a business, from finding real estate to securing funding and helping them grow.
"It's all the different elements that you need to be successful," he said. "We like to think about it as like a practice in a box or an easy button for cardiologists to start and grow a new practice."
Through its survey, CardioOne identified the greatest impediments to cardiologists leaving employment as the generial complexity of opening a private pratice and access to capital.
"We're helping to solve the two largest issues associated with starting a new practice and then providing the capabilities and support to manage and grow the practice from there" Mr. Struck said.
CardioOne does this by primarily securing financing through its relationships with several banks, as well as medical equipment manufacturers. This also enables CardioOne to achieve favorable funding structures for the practices it works with.
"Through our relationships, they really understand the business of cardiology, so we've been able to secure pretty attractive terms for our partners," Mr. Struck said.
He highlighted the recent success of one practice in New Hampshire, who first began working with CardioOne in April 2024.
"[They] launched their practice, fully independent, in September [2024], and have grown their patient panel [very significantly] in just a short number of months. They're well ahead of their budget, and we're working on building new service lines with them every day," he said.
ASCs, specifically, play an important role in the expansion of independent cardiology practices, Mr. Struck added.
"Cardiac ASCs are one of the things that is making an independent practice more and more attractive to even currently employed docs," he said. "The stars are really aligning in terms of what physicians want, what patients want, and what the system needs, which is a better access and lower cost sites of care."