Private equity investment in physician offices: Coming soon to a town near you

Private equity (PE) is investing more in physicians’ practices around the United States, but not every city and state has the same level of investment.

PE investment can lead to lack of business competition, which in turn pushes up prices for patients.

As of 2021, the nation had 108 metropolitan statistical areas where a single private equity firm possessed at least 30% of market share of one or more physician specialties in. That figure comes from the analysis “Monetizing Medicine: Private Equity and Competition in Physician Practice Markets,” the report published this month by the American Antitrust Institute, the Petris Center of the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Where was the greatest concentration of private equity investment?

This slideshow lists the states where there is at least one MSA where a single private equity firm has at least 50% of the market share of one or more physician specialties as of 2021. The report included the list of cities and states, but did not detail which specialty is in which location.