Physician groups are becoming a focus of healthcare industry leaders as hospitals continue to compete with outpatient care facilities like retail clinics and surgery centers. Unlike traditional inpatient hospitals, physician groups occupy a unique place in the care continuum. Physician group practices are generally smaller than hospitals with fewer staff members, giving them greater flexibility in areas such as operating hours, service offerings, charity care spending, and more.
However, their small size can also be a detriment. Smaller practices are not able to offer the amount of services a hospital can, leading to lower revenue. Lower budgets mean fewer employed physicians, which can lead to understaffing. Lack of revenue can also lead to issues implementing new technologies, including electronic health record (EHR) systems. For these and other reasons, hospitals and health systems are increasingly willing to purchase or partner with local physician groups. These relationships ensure that patient referrals remain in-network, which can stem revenue loss.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of the top 25 physician groups with the greatest Medicare payments. There seems to be no correlation between practice size and payment amount, with three of the top 10 physician groups reporting fewer than 1,000 employed physicians. The average number of employed physicians for all 25 group practices is 1,780 physicians, with the lowest reported as 267, and the highest as 4,031. As far as specialties, internal medicine is by far the most common among the practices on this list, with 14 of the 25 reporting it as the primary specialty.
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| Physician Group Name | Medicare Payments | Specialty | Number of Physicians | Explore This Dataset | |
| 1. | Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute | $594,459,633 | Oncology | 267 | Explore This Profile |
| 2. | Texas Oncology | $488,220,726 | Oncology | 552 | Explore This Profile |
| 3. | Arizona State Physicians Association | $444,078,168 | Pediatrics | 1,324 | Explore This Profile |
| 4. | Meridian Health Partners | $407,343,923 | Internal Medicine | 1,847 | Explore This Profile |
| 5. | Northwell Health Physician Partners | $394,118,598 | Internal Medicine | 3,410 | Explore This Profile |
| 6. | Franciscan Physician Network | $382,318,091 | Family Practice | 2,436 | Explore This Profile |
| 7. | HealthCare Partners IPA | $256,935,336 | Internal Medicine | 4,031 | Explore This Profile |
| 8. | Cleveland Clinic | $243,397,461 | Internal Medicine | 3,795 | Explore This Profile |
| 9. | NYC University Physicians Network | $221,062,168 | Internal Medicine | 2,714 | Explore This Profile |
| 10. | North Texas Specialty Physicians | $219,197,104 | Family Practice | 891 | Explore This Profile |
| 11. | IPA of Nassau/Suffolk Counties | $217,169,529 | Anesthesiology | 643 | Explore This Profile |
| 12. | Palo Alto Medical Foundation | $213,080,035 | Internal Medicine | 2,400 | Explore This Profile |
| 13. | 21st Century Oncology | $212,655,469 | Radiology - Radiation Oncology | 334 | Explore This Profile |
| 14. | Bayfront Health Medical Group | $208,157,539 | Radiology - Diagnostic Radiology | 610 | Explore This Profile |
| 15. | The Emory Clinic | $192,031,499 | Internal Medicine | 2,432 | Explore This Profile |
| 16. | Broward Health Physician Group | $191,746,816 | Internal Medicine | 1,455 | Explore This Profile |
| 17. | OSF Medical Group | $183,830,864 | Family Practice | 1,099 | Explore This Profile |
| 18. | Regional Cancer Care Associates | $175,196,531 | Oncology | 147 | Explore This Profile |
| 19. | Health First Medical Group | $173,467,571 | Internal Medicine | 842 | Explore This Profile |
| 20. | Vidant Medical Group | $171,972,766 | Internal Medicine | 1,324 | Explore This Profile |
| 21. | Sutter Medical Foundation | $171,252,786 | Family Practice | 1,518 | Explore This Profile |
| 22. | Mayo Clinic Health System - Rochester | $169,470,249 | Internal Medicine | 3,475 | Explore This Profile |
| 23. | Apogee Physicians | $167,527,549 | Internal Medicine | 1,862 | Explore This Profile |
| 24. | University of Penn Medical Group | $166,180,197 | Internal Medicine | 2,396 | Explore This Profile |
| 25. | Johns Hopkins University Health System | $165,123,676 | Internal Medicine | 2,709 | Explore This Profile |
Fig 1. Data from Definitive Healthcare based on self-reporting and reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).