As hospitals and health systems grow larger and more powerful, renewed efforts to scrutinize transactions may protect physicians’ jobs—while new visa regulations and an aging workforce put pressure on those currently in practice.
Here are five recent developments shaking up the physician workforce in 2026:
1. The Federal Trade Commission plans to ramp up scrutiny on healthcare consolidation. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson directed multiple agencies to establish the task force, coordinating efforts across the Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Economics, the Office of Policy Planning and the Office of Technology. The task force will lead targeted enforcement and advocacy efforts, develop agencywide investigation strategies, proactively identify opportunities to file amicus briefs and statements of interest, and flag emerging areas of concern across healthcare markets, according to the FTC.
Mr. Ferguson cited consolidation and anticompetitive practices as key drivers of higher prices, reduced care quality and stifled innovation. Healthcare accounts for roughly 18% of the U.S. economy, yet many patients continue to face high costs and limited access, which the FTC attributes largely to concentrated markets.
Research cited by Lexology finds roughly 80% to 90% of U.S. hospital markets are “highly concentrated” under Justice Department-FTC merger guidelines, typically dominated by one to three systems. According to a Government Accountability Office report, hospital-physician consolidation is associated with 17% higher commercial office-visit prices, based on studies from 2010 to 2016.
2. The National Residency Match Program sees its largest applicant pool in 42 years. Of the 15,358 positions offered, an increase of 738 positions (5%) from the 2025 appointment year, 12,963 (84.4%) were filled. Just over half of the position increase is attributable to the four new subspecialties that joined the Specialty Matching Service.
The results are promising for a workforce with a projected shortage of 141,160 full-time equivalent physicians by 2038, which has largely been attributed to a breakdown between the number of new physicians entering the medical field and those retiring or leaving medicine for other reasons. In 2005, more than 11% of physicians were 65 or older. That number rose to 22.4% in 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
3. Physicians with disabilities are more likely to leave the workforce. Physicians with disabilities are more than twice as likely to consider leaving medicine and nearly twice as likely to reduce or pause clinical practice compared with peers who do not have disabilities, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open March 23. Physicians with disabilities represent a small portion of the workforce, with 154 out of 5,917, or 2.6%, of physicians included in the study identifying as having a disability
But a commentary accompanying the study noted this figure likely undercounts the true prevalence due to reluctance among physicians to disclose disability. In raw numbers, 36.4% of physicians with disabilities reported considering leaving medical practice within the past 12 months, versus 23.5% of those without disabilities.
4. One system’s contract dispute tests anticompetition laws—and what that may mean moving forward. Eugene Emergency Physicians, an Oregon-based emergency medicine group with about 41 providers in Lane County, is suing to block Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth’s planned partnership with ApolloMD, an Atlanta-based national physician staffing company.
The lawsuit, filed March 20 in an Oregon state circuit court, alleges the partnership violates Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine laws, including restrictions on management services organizations. The lawsuit comes after PeaceHealth said in February it would not renew its 35-year contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians, instead opting to partner with ApolloMD to staff emergency departments at PeaceHealth Cottage Grove (Ore.) Community Medical Center, PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center and PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.
ApolloMD has said the model complies with Oregon law, noting that the local entity is physician-owned and responsible for clinical decision-making, while the company provides nonclinical services such as billing, recruiting and data analysis, according to an Oregon Public Broadcasting report. A spokesperson for ApolloMD declined to comment on pending litigation. PeaceHealth declined to comment, citing pending litigation, and said its focus remains on ensuring continuity of emergency services and providing high-quality care. In a statement shared with Becker’s, Eugene Emergency Physicians said the lawsuit aims to ensure compliance with Oregon law and preserve locally controlled emergency care services.
The lawsuit represents the first legal test of Oregon’s anticompetition law since it was signed in June 2025, with numerous states proposing similar legislation in recent months.
5. Visa processing delays hit hospitals. Visa processing delays are sidelining foreign physicians at hospitals and clinics across the nations in the wake of a freeze on automatic extensions of employment authorizations for visas, among other recent policy developments.
In December, the Trump Administration released Proclamation 10998, which implemented a full suspension of entry to the U.S. for nationals from 19 countries, and a partial suspension of entry from 20 countries. Although the travel ban does not apply to visa holders in the U.S., USCIS paused visa renewals and updates for people from those countries. This subjected more than 10,000 physician H-1B visa holders and 17,000 with J-1s, along with thousands of nurses, lab techs and other healthcare workers to the visa pause.
The proclamation, combined with additional enforcement actions detailed in a March 30 release from USCIS, has left thousands of foreign clinicians unable to work. Many of these clinicians work in rural and underserved areas, while nearly 21 million Americans live in areas where foreign-trained physicians account for at least half of all physicians, according to the American Medical Association. USCIS is funded by processing fees, so the agency remains open despite DHS being shut down due to the funding impasse in Congress.
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