Changes in the Radiology Practice Landscape and Indicators of Practice Consolidation From 2014 to 2023.

ABSTRACT

Background: A range of economic and health policy incentives are leading to ongoing consolidation among payers, hospitals, and physician practices. Objective: To evaluate consolidation among radiologists' affiliated practices through 2023, analyze the impact of consolidation on such practices' specialty mix and size, and assess radiologists' new affiliations after prior practices cease. Methods: CMS data from 2014 to 2023 were used to identify all radiologists nationally along with their affiliated practices. Practices were categorized based on the specialty mix of all affiliated physicians as radiology-only or multispecialty; multispecialty practices were further categorized as radiology-majority, other-specialty-majority,or no-majority-specialty. Practices that ceased (i.e., became absent within CMS data) were identified. Temporal shifts were assessed, to infer consolidation patterns. Results: From 2014 to 2023, the number of Medicare-enrolled radiologists increased 17.3% from 30,723 to 36,024, while their number of affiliated practices decreased 14.7% from 5059 to 4313. The number of radiology-only, radiology-majority, other-specialty-majority, and no-majority practices changed by -31.8% (3104 to 2118), 10.8% (402 to 446), -5.7% (615 to 580), and 24.6% (938 to 1169), respectively. The number of practices with 1-2, 3-9, 10-24, 25-49, 50-99, and ≥100 radiologists changed by -18.7% (2233 to 1815), -34.4% (1406 to 923), -25.2% (910 to 681), 33.2% (352 to 469), 121.6% (125 to 277), and 348.5% (33 to 148). A total of 3494 practices ceased, including 2281 radiology-only practices. Among 3854 radiologists for whom their only affiliation was a ceased radiology-only practice, their subsequent-year affiliation was a radiology-only practice in 54.3% and a multispecialty practice type in the remaining instances. Conclusions: An overall decrease in the number of radiology practices and concurrent growth in the number of radiologists was mirrored by shifts from small toward large practices and from radiology-only toward multispecialty practices, consistent with ongoing practice consolidation. While determining causes of consolidation were beyond this study's scope, the shifts may relate to economic incentives and legislative changes favoring large multispecialty practices. Clinical Impact Radiologists' continued consolidation into large multispecialty practices may facilitate subspecialization and greater negotiating power in payor contracting. Yet radiologists may prefer smaller and/or radiology-only practices for autonomy and influence on practice structure.