America’s Private Doctors Are Disappearing – And Patients Are Paying the Price

I am Dr. Scott D. Tzorfas, a board-certified neurologist who has practiced independently for over 25 years in southern New Jersey. Across the country, private practice doctors are vanishing, swallowed up by hospital systems, health care entities, and corporate giants like Amazon’s One Medical.

This is not just a crisis for doctors—it’s a crisis for patients. 

**In 2012, over two-thirds of U.S. physicians were in private practice. Today, 74% are employed by hospitals or corporations.

**Hospital-owned practices cost Medicare and taxpayers far more. A recent study shows hospitals receive $114,000 more per doctor, per year for the same services compared to independent practices.

**Patients are forced to wait months for appointments in hospital systems, while private doctors—like me—can see patients in days or weeks.

**Burdensome regulations, erosion of physician autonomy, excessive administrative requirements, unfair payment structures, and endless insurance authorizations are strangling private practices.

No one cares for patients like a private doctor who has “skin in the game.” When you come to a private office, the care is personal, timely, and driven by what’s best for the patient—not by corporate boards or insurance executives.

 
Solutions to Restore Private Practice

To ensure patients have real choices and timely care, we must:

1) Level the playing field so private physicians receive equal reimbursement as hospitals for identical services.
2) Reduce burdensome government regulations and restore physician autonomy.
3) Create financial incentives that encourage doctors to remain in, or return to, private practice.
4) Use legislation or executive action to eliminate unnecessary pre-certification and authorization barriers that delay care.
5) Restrict excessive interference by insurance companies in the doctor-patient relationship.
6) Restore free-market competition in healthcare to drive innovation and improve patient outcomes.
 
Why This Matters

Patients deserve a choice. If current trends continue, personal, compassionate care from independent doctors will disappear—and patients will be left with impersonal, corporate-run medicine and endless waiting lists.

Sign this petition if you believe patients should have the right to see independent doctors, and that physician independence must be preserved for better, more affordable care.

Please follow me on X @STzorfas