The researchers say that common practices acquired are those that have several sites and many physicians. This is a typical investment strategy exercised by private equity firms to acquire 'platform' practices with large community footprints that they can grow value in by recruiting additional physicians, acquiring smaller groups and expanding market reach.

The team notes, however, that a lack of evidence and the use of nondisclosure agreements at early stages of agreements limits available data and underestimates the total number of private acquisitions. It also warns that the impact of the growth in the number of acquisitions by private equity firms is unknown and requires further study.


"Understanding the scope of this trend is just the first step - private equity acquisitions are continuing to accelerate and there is a need to understand the effects of these ownership changes - and possible incentive changes - on practice patterns, physician behavior and retention, and quality of care," said Zhu. "We are currently working on pursuing these questions in more detail, though current data availability continues to present barriers."

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