Physicians employed by health insurance companies report significantly more pressure to keep patients within their network than those working for hospitals or private equity-owned practices, according to a new survey from the Physicians Advocacy Institute.
The 2026 PAI Employed Physician Survey, conducted by Healthsperien, found 79% of insurer-employed physicians feel pressure to keep patients within their health system even when it isn’t the best care for the patient compared with 58% of those employed by hospitals or health systems and 59% of those employed by venture capital or private equity firms.
Insurer-employed physicians also reported the highest rate of employer-imposed barriers to referring patients outside their network, at 77%, versus 63% for hospital-employed physicians and 57% for those employed by venture capital or private equity firms.
The findings arrive as the buyer landscape for physician practices keeps shifting. At the start of 2026, insurers, private equity firms and other non-hospital corporations owned more physician practices (33.2%) than hospitals and health systems did (30.6%). More than 82% of physicians are now employed, and nearly 64% of practices are corporately owned.
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