Healthcare Succession Is Creating a New Generation of Practice Owners

The next generation of healthcare owners may increasingly come from a wider range of professional backgrounds as aging practice owners consider succession and healthcare organizations prepare for changing demands.

The so-called "silver tsunami" has brought renewed attention to ownership transitions across American businesses. According to Chief Healthcare Executive, the last members of the Baby Boomer generation are expected to reach retirement age by 2030, with one in five Americans projected to be 65 or older by the end of the decade. The publication also reports that nearly one in five physicians were already 65 or older in 2023, based on data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

A similar succession question is emerging among small-business owners. FOX Business reported that nearly half of U.S. small-business owners are 55 or older, while 54% have a succession plan in place, citing Forbes. For healthcare practices, ownership transitions can involve additional considerations involving regulatory compliance, patient records, clinical standards, staffing, and relationships with referring providers. Joanell Paris-Santos and Lionel White, co-founders of Urgentflex Holding, suggest that these factors may make healthcare succession a particularly specialized form of entrepreneurship.

Paris-Santos believes the succession conversation can benefit from a broader understanding of who can participate in healthcare ownership. His own path with White began in life insurance before moving into finance, private equity, and business management. He says, "Those experiences helped develop an ability to work with financial risk, operational complexity, relationships, and the regulatory responsibilities that accompany healthcare ownership."

That perspective also reframes the role of the non-clinical entrepreneur. Medical professionals bring specialized knowledge of diagnosis, treatment, and patient care, while business operators can contribute expertise in financial management, organizational systems, staffing, and process development. Paris-Santos and White's experience suggests that these capabilities can complement one another when responsibility for a healthcare organization is shared across clinical and operational leadership.

With the help of Dr. Tyler Sexton, their acquisition of a specialized Melbourne, Florida clinic offering hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and advanced wound care illustrates how entrepreneurship through acquisition can fit into the succession conversation. Paris-Santos and White acquired the facility in 2024, preserving an established practice focused on hyperbaric oxygen therapy and advanced wound care. In an interview with News 13, Paris-Santos described their motivation as finding a way to continue businesses built over many years, while White spoke about acquisition as a way for younger entrepreneurs to honor the work of previous owners.

Preserving an existing practice, however, can require attention to the infrastructure supporting its clinical work. Physician owners often balance patient care with responsibilities involving revenue cycle management, human resources, accounting, compliance, and day-to-day administration. For an organization seeking to grow across multiple locations, those functions may require dedicated systems and specialized management.

White states, "This operational layer is an important part of our work. At acquired practices, our team has focused on areas such as centralized billing, Lean Six Sigma process strategies, and more structured financial reporting." He emphasizes that the goal is to create infrastructure that can support expansion while maintaining the culture and patient relationships developed by the original practice.

That philosophy extends to employees. The company's efforts involve medical benefits, 401(k) plans, career development, and potential profit-sharing structures as the organization expands. Such measures point to a broader consideration in succession: a healthcare business can represent a professional ecosystem involving clinicians, administrative employees, technicians, and other workers whose opportunities may evolve alongside the organization.

The broader ownership landscape adds another dimension. A 2026 report from Medical Economics, citing Physicians Advocacy Institute data compiled by Avalere Health, reported that 82% of physicians were employed by hospitals or corporate entities, while 63.9% of practices were corporately owned. The figures cover data through January 2026 and illustrate how substantially ownership structures have changed over recent years.

For entrepreneurs such as Paris-Santos and White, that environment creates a case for considering acquisition as one possible pathway for the next generation of healthcare ownership. Their focus on hyperbaric medicine and wound care places them within a specialized segment where fragmented ownership can create opportunities to connect established practices through shared operational resources. "We call our philosophy impact investing, with attention extending to access, employee development, education, and organizational infrastructure," Paris-Santos shares.

As healthcare ownership continues to evolve, the next generation of owners may include physicians alongside entrepreneurs with backgrounds in finance, operations, management, and investment. Their responsibilities can extend beyond acquiring a business to understanding the systems that support clinicians, employees, compliance, and patient care. In that sense, succession may become an opportunity to connect the knowledge accumulated by established practice owners with the organizational capabilities of a new generation.