STAT+: State laws may be curbing private equity takeovers of physician group
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- Over a dozen states have enacted laws enhancing oversight of private equity deals in health care, with a new report crediting those rules as "putting a crimp in dealmaking"
- PitchBook data shows physician practice management acquisitions are on track to hit roughly half the 2025 total this year
- Deal volume in the sector collapsed from a peak of 851 transactions in 2021 to just 105 in the first half of 2026 — an 88% decline
- Paul Pitts, a Reed Smith partner who advises health care providers, called the drop "certainly been a big decrease"
- Physician practice management firms run clinics' billing and operations — the operational backbone PE has historically targeted for acquisition
Why it matters: Private equity firms face a physician practice deal pipeline that has plummeted from 851 transactions in 2021 to just 105 in the first half of 2026, with over a dozen state oversight laws taking credit. The clinics those PE firms target — providers' billing and operations — now sit in an acquisition market a fraction of its 2021 peak size.
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