Just two in five U.S. physicians are in doctor-owned private practice as hospitals and private equity firms gobble up physician groups thanks in part to cuts in insurance payments to medical care providers that are about to get even worse.

The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest physician group, says in a new report that the share of physicians working in private practice was 42.2% last year, which is a sharp decline from more than a decade ago when more than 60% -- or three in five doctors – were in private practice, which the AMA defines as a “practice wholly owned by physicians.”

The AMA’s a nalysis blames flat to falling payments from health insurance companies and government health programs like Medicare coverage for the elderly and Medicaid coverage for low-incom

See Full Page