Gibbins Advisors projects 14 Chapter 11 filings by physician practices and clinics in 2026, up from 6 in 2025 and 10 in 2024. The projection assumes the first half of 2026 repeats, and it covers only companies with more than $10 million in liabilities, so it describes large practices and groups, not solo offices.
How many practices filed in the first half of 2026
Gibbins Advisors counted 26 healthcare companies with more than $10 million in liabilities that filed for Chapter 11 in the first half of 2026. Twelve filed in the first quarter and 14 in the second. Gibbins puts the average since 2019 at about 12.5 filings per quarter, so overall healthcare filings sit near normal.
Clinics and physician practices are the exception. Gibbins found that they made up nearly 30% of first-half filings, the highest share since 2019. Total filings rose about 33% from 9 in Q4 2025 to 12 in Q1 2026, and four of those 12 came from clinics and physician practices, according to Gibbins' April 2026 snapshot report. Medical Economics reported on July 30, 2026 that practices account for 11.8% of the 374 healthcare bankruptcies Gibbins tracked from 2019 to mid-2026. The 2026 share is nearly triple that.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Practice and clinic filings, 2024 | 10 | Medical Economics, citing Gibbins Advisors |
| Practice and clinic filings, 2025 | 6 | Gibbins Advisors via Healthcare Dive |
| Practice and clinic filings, 2026 projected | 14 | Gibbins Advisors via Healthcare Dive |
| All healthcare filings, Q4 2025 | 9 | Gibbins Advisors, Q1 2026 snapshot |
| All healthcare filings, Q1 2026 | 12 | Gibbins Advisors, Q1 2026 snapshot |
| All healthcare filings, Q2 2026 | 14 | Gibbins Advisors, interim 2026 report |
| All healthcare filings, 2026 projected | 52 (16% above 2025) | Gibbins Advisors via Healthcare Dive |
Source: Gibbins Advisors healthcare bankruptcy reports, April 30 and July 20, 2026, with coverage from Healthcare Dive and Medical Economics. Filing counts include only companies with liabilities above $10 million.
Smaller cases drive the increase
Gibbins sorts filings by liabilities. Eighteen companies with $10 million to $50 million in liabilities filed in the first half of 2026, compared with 23 in all of 2025, according to Healthcare Dive. At that pace Gibbins projects 36 small filings for 2026, a 57% rise over 2025. Large cases, those with $50 million or more in liabilities, are flat or lower than in 2025.
Medical Economics put the first-half share at 69% for the $10 million to $50 million band. The Q1 snapshot found 3 filings above $100 million in liabilities in both Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, so the largest cases did not change.
The same Medical Economics article cites a minimum viable size for an independent practice of 40 to 50 providers.
What MGMA polls show about costs and revenue
MGMA Stat polled 251 medical groups on June 23, 2026. Of those, 84% reported higher operating costs year to date than in the same period of 2025, 8% reported about the same, and 8% reported lower costs. Groups with rising costs averaged an increase of about 11%, and most answers fell between 5% and 20%.
The share with higher costs has eased slowly. MGMA recorded 95% in 2023, 92% in 2024 and 90% in June 2025. Even at 84%, more than four in five groups still pay more to run the same operation.
Revenue is the other half. In MGMA's June 30, 2026 poll of 221 groups, 47% reported higher revenue than the year before, 14% reported similar revenue and 36% reported a decline. In June 2025, 56% reported higher revenue and 30% reported a decline. The lead of groups gaining over groups losing fell from 26 percentage points to 11.
MGMA also reported that 80% of medical groups said Medicare reimbursement is below their cost of delivering care. For 2026 the Medicare conversion factor is $33.57 for qualifying participants, a 3.77% increase, and $33.40 for other clinicians, a 3.26% increase. The same schedule applies an efficiency adjustment of -2.5% to work RVUs and intraservice time for more than 7,000 non-time-based codes, according to MGMA's July 2, 2026 summary.
Payroll and denial figures behind the pressure
Gibbins cited a median healthcare staff pay increase of 4.3% in 2025, up from 2.7% in 2024. MGMA's September 2025 budgeting poll found that 64% of groups planned 1% to 3% raises for 2026 and 23% planned 4% to 6%. MGMA also reported that five-year total compensation for medical receptionists, medical assistants and licensed practical nurses rose 15% to 22%.
Claim denials add to the cost side. Gibbins reported that denials rose 12% for inpatient claims and 14% for outpatient claims from 2024 to 2025, and that 41% of providers have denial rates above 10%. Those figures describe hospital and health system providers, and they show the direction of payer behavior more than any single practice's rate.
A practice can compare its own books against the same measures. Year-over-year cost growth against the roughly 11% MGMA average, raise budgets against the 4.3% pay trend and denial rate against the 10% line are three that map directly to the data above.
Sources
- Gibbins Advisors, Healthcare Bankruptcy Filings Stabilize in the First Half of 2026, July 20, 2026
- Gibbins Advisors, Senior Care and Clinics/Physician Practices Drive Healthcare Bankruptcy Filings in Q1 2026, April 30, 2026
- Healthcare Dive, Clinic and physician practice bankruptcies spike in 2026 so far, July 20, 2026
- Medical Economics, Physician practice bankruptcies on pace for their highest level since 2019, July 30, 2026
- MGMA Stat, Operating costs keep climbing for medical practices in 2026, June 24, 2026
- MGMA Stat, Revenue growth narrows as costs climb: the 2026 squeeze on medical practices, July 2, 2026
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