The CAP published the 2021 Practice Leaders Survey Report providing invaluable support for setting advocacy priorities and for informing lawmakers and regulators of the important issues facing pathologists. The survey collects information about practice demographics, case mix revenue and sources, hiring and staffing, market and regulatory issues, problems with coverage and payment,

In addition, the 2021 report reported on changes in pathologist practice ownership. According to the 2021 report, although the percent of respondents’ practices that were owned by pathologists appeared to be fairly stable between 2018 and 2021, different patterns emerge when the data are disaggregated by practice setting. Specifically, the share of practices based in academic medical centers (AMCs) that are pathologist-owned fell from 13% in 2018 to 6% in 2021. Additionally, there were substantial increases in the share of respondents whose practices are owned by hospitals and health systems and in corporate-owned practices.

Practice Ownership Structure, by Setting, 2018 vs. 2021

Numbers may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Source: Q4–Which of the following best describes the ownership structure of your primary practice setting?; 2018 Practice Leader Survey Report, available at https:// www.cap.org/gated-assets/uploads/

By contrast, the share of pathologist-owned practices increased substantially for practices based in non-academic hospitals (both those unaffiliated with AMCs and those owned, affiliated with, or managed by AMCs) and for practices based in independent laboratories. Among practices based in non-academic hospitals, the share of pathologist-owned practices in 2021 increased, regardless of AMC affiliation, by about 12-13 percentage points relative to 2018. Hospital/health system ownership of hospitals unaffiliated with an AMC fell from 32% in 2018 to 18% in 2021.

Download the full 2021 Practice Leader Survey report (member login is required).