Physician-owners cite control over care, culture, and long-term stability as reasons to stay independent amid ongoing acquisition offers
Physicians from Carolina Conceptions in North Carolina and Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine explained their rationale for remaining independent despite multiple acquisition offers. While acknowledging the substantial payouts associated with selling equity, both groups underscored autonomy in clinical care, agility in operations, and preservation of physician ownership as central to their strategy.
Autonomy over golden parachutes
Carolina Conceptions co-founder Dr. Bill Meyer, who plans to retire in 2025, highlighted independence as a core value. “How much money do you actually need to be satisfied, if your life is comfortable and you have control of your practice?” he said.
Senior partner Dr. John Park and mid-career partner Dr. Meaghan Bowling noted that independence enables them to engage directly with benefit programs, research initiatives, and new technologies such as FertilAI, without restrictions imposed by non-clinical stakeholders. Bowling explained that retaining autonomy allows the group to “keep pregnancy rates high” and act quickly when protocols require adjustments.
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Technology as a driver of independence
Operational scale and efficiency remain priorities for independent groups, which face similar patient volume pressures as network-backed clinics. Carolina Conceptions leaders said their independence allowed them to select technology that fit their workflow rather than adapting to investor mandates.
The group implemented nAble, a cloud-based EMR built for reproductive medicine, to streamline care across multiple locations. “nAble really was just the best fit for us in following the workflow of patients, looking at the treatment cycles, the work lists, how that is populated and how it’s customizable,” Dr. Park said. “It was the right fit for an office that had multiple satellites where we don’t have one particular physician tied to one particular location.”
Dr. Bowling recalled the vendor evaluation: “We got it down to Artisan and nAble and then ultimately decided on nAble,” citing usability across sites as a key factor after the practice expanded following COVID.
At Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine, physicians also credited nAble with improving efficiency. Dr. Kyle Tobler said, “It’s user friendly… the work list populates so only labs that have been reported come up, so you can focus and make decisions quickly without having to sort through a list of 100 patients. It’s catered towards IVF, easy to find embryology information, and cloud-based so you can access it on any device.”
Because FertilAI integrates seamlessly with nAble and other leading EMRs, its predictive modeling can be layered onto existing workflows without disruption. Designed to identify missed oocyte potential and support data-driven protocol optimization, FertilAI enables practices to sustain high success rates and preserve clinical control—advantages physician-owners view as critical to remaining independent.
Younger physicians seek equity
For early-career physicians, independent practice opportunities are increasingly scarce. Of the roughly 60 fellows who graduated in 2023, only seven joined independently owned groups.
Dr. Monica Schointuch, who joined Carolina Conceptions that year, cited both reputation and culture as reasons for choosing an independent group. She said she wanted “the ability to truly care for my patients and provide individualized care… not necessarily fall into a templated type of treatment.”
Schointuch noted that Carolina Conceptions’ size—five reproductive endocrinologists across four offices, and consistent pregnancy rates provided the stability she sought in a long-term career.
Lessons from network contracts
In Boise, physicians recalled challenges faced under a former IntegraMed management contract. Capital requests for clinical expansion were denied, and the practice lost a quarter’s worth of distributions when IntegraMed declared bankruptcy in 2020.
“The most painful thing was when they went bankrupt… we lost that money,” said Dr. Cristin Slater, adding that regaining independence required significant legal expense.
Dr. Tobler said his decision to join the group was rooted in ownership opportunity. He sought “a small group where I’d actually have the opportunity to become a full partner… with ownership on both sides.”
Challenges in a consolidating field
Both groups acknowledged that consolidation narrows ownership pathways for younger physicians. Slater described it as “not fair to the next generation” to restrict paths to true practice equity. Tobler added that many fellows underestimate the rewards of independent practice while overestimating its risks.
Physician-owned networks similar to those in dermatology or dentistry could provide scale advantages, but Park cautioned that such arrangements might still erode autonomy if centralized operations begin dictating clinical decisions.
From Data to Results: Boost Your IVF Outcomes
Discover the AI Trained on 53,000 IVF Cycles That Outperforms Physician Estimates
FertilAI helps your clinic:
Identify missed oocyte potential in stimulation cycles
Use predictive models to improve patient outcomes
Make data-driven decisions without changing your clinical workflow
Clinics are already leveraging FertilAI’s insights to optimize protocols and increase pregnancy rates. Don’t let your most valuable data go unused. lab