This is based on the fear conspiracy that all of medicine will be consumed by PE. It’s not. My group, and plenty of others, have been approached by PE many many times. We adamantly refuse to join, and I do NOT see that changing. Within our group, it’s considered a moral compass dilemma and we are perfectly fine being private MD/DO owned. No general ophthalmology groups in our area have been purchased through PE either, and they’ve all been approached. There are plenty of PE owned groups within several hours of us but we have absolutely no fear of their presence. Even if they wanted to expand into our areas, they cannot recruit retina docs to fill the spots. Trust me, they’ve been trying for years to fill open positions just within their own communities and cannot get it done.
it used to be that places like NYC and LA could offer crappy starting salaries and they’d have graduating ophthalmologists falling all over themselves to take those jobs (ie, $90,000 starting salary in LA vs $300,000 starting in a medium sized city). Yes, those jobs still exist (they were around when I finished residency) but I don’t see them as much as I used to. If someone wants to take one of those positions, that’s their own fault and I feel no pity for them. There is so much opportunity to do well in ophthalmology, that there is zero excuse to not be successful and avoid PE.