Overview
The corporate practice of medicine (CPOM) refers to a set of laws developed over the last century to prevent unlicensed entities or corporations from influencing medical decision-making by limiting the ownership of medical entities to licensed healthcare professionals. As state legislatures have enacted CPOM laws, health care business practices and corporate structures have evolved to allow corporations to exert control over physician organizations. To address this corporatization of health care, legislators, policymakers, and other stakeholders have proposed refinements to CPOM laws to address widespread concerns about private equity investments in the health care sector.
The Source has published research examining the corporate practice of medicine, including a discussion of the evolution of corporate structures like the “friendly PC model” that allow companies to circumvent in the intent of CPOM laws, a comparison of current state laws, and options for amendments to existing state laws. Click below to access this publication:
2025 Bills Introduced in State Legislatures to Modify Corporate Practice of Medicine
View current state bills addressing corporate practice of medicine by clicking on the states in the map below.
CPOM Bills in Prior Sessions
Related Studies and Papers
Links to External Resources
(Note: these links are to sources external to The Source, and The Source cannot be responsible for their content or any errors that might occur on these sites. These links are being provided for informational purposes only)
- Model Legislation Addressing Transaction Oversight, Corporate Practice of Medicine and Transparency (from The National Academy For State Health Policy) – model legislation for states to address the issues of corporate and private equity entry into health care markets, health care consolidation, and closures of key service lines or facilities.
- Private Equity Hospital Tracker (from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project) – includes a current list of all private equity-owned hospitals in the U.S., a map of private equity hospital ownership, and a density map showing the percentage of private equity ownership by state.
- The Corporate Practice of Medicine 50-State Guide (from Permit Health) – features a list of Corporate Practice of Medicine laws for all 50 states and D.C.
- What Is . . . the Corporate Practice of Medicine and Fee-Splitting? Fee-Splitting Prohibitions (from the American Bar Association)