What your practice is actually worth, with Andy Colbert of Ziegler
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Health care investment banker Andy Colbert of Ziegler explains what an independent practice is really worth, and the strategic options its physicians have as consolidation pressure builds.
Independent practices are being squeezed from every direction: rising labor costs, shrinking reimbursement and an administrative load that keeps growing. Andy Colbert, senior managing director at Ziegler and leader of the firm's physician advisory practice, has spent nearly two decades helping physician groups decide whether to stay independent, merge or sell.
In this conversation with Medical Economics Senior Editor Richard Payerchin, he lays out the scale it takes to remain independent today, what a practice is actually worth when an offer arrives, and how private equity, hospital partnerships and management services organizations really compare. Physicians weighing their next move get a clear framework for the decision, and a reminder to build a strategic plan before someone else sets the agenda.
Music Credits:
Velvet Sunday Drift by Tea Studio - stock.adobe.com
A Textbook Example by Skip Peck - stock.adobe.com
Editor's note: Episode timestamps and transcript produced using AI tools.
0:00 – 0:28 | Cold open — Colbert on why clinical work alone no longer builds practice value.
0:28 – 1:31 | Introduction — Austin Littrell previews the episode.
1:31 – 3:18 | Meet Andy Colbert — from a family of physicians to leading Ziegler's physician advisory practice.
3:18 – 8:27 | The biggest shift in physician M&A — waves of consolidation, the roughly 40 to 50 physician threshold it takes to stay independent, and why ownership now means thinking like a business person.
8:27 – 15:39 | What a practice is actually worth — cash flow as the real measure of value, the 30% "scrape," and how the math shifts with years left in practice.
15:39 – 16:30 | P2 Management Minute — Keith Reynolds.
16:30 – 20:47 | Hospital deal vs. private investor — day-one reimbursement bumps, the defensive play, and platform vs. tuck-in.
20:47 – 24:56 | The private equity debate — Colbert's case for PE as a healthy third option between hospital employment and the health plans.
24:56 – 28:54 | The AI question — where artificial intelligence helps practice economics, and why it favors scale.
28:54 – 31:48 | Staff and overhead in a deal — why headcount usually holds, and how to communicate change without spooking staff.
31:48 – 34:55 | The MSO strategy — using a management services organization to think and act like a real business.
34:55 – 37:56 | A message to primary care physicians — build scale and write the three-to-five-year strategic plan before someone knocks.
37:56 – 39:05 | Closing thoughts and outro