Physician Medical Group M&A Fell in Q3:26, According to Acquisition Data from LevinPro HC

NEW CANAAN, Conn., Oct. 19, 2026 -- M&A activity in the Physician Medical Group (PMG) sector fell to 105 transactions, a small drop from the 107 recorded in Q2:26 and a 23% decrease from the 137 reported in Q3:25. In total, there have been 368 PMG deals announced in the first three quarters of the year.

PMG deal activity was centered around subsectors with high fragmentation and room for scale. Dental drove most of the activity throughout the quarter, totaling 49% with 51 transactions, marking a 7% decrease from the 55 announced in Q2:26 and a 27% drop from the 70 reported in Q3:25. Dermatology was also active with 11 transactions, a sizable increase from the five reported in Q2:26, and slightly more than the eight announced in Q3:25. There were seven ear, nose & throat deals, five OB/GYN and four cardiology.

Private equity (PE) firms and their sponsored platforms remain the most active investors in the PMG market, accounting for more than 50% of transactions (53 deals). This is up from the third quarter of 2025, when PE accounted for 47% of all announced deals (65 transactions total).

Dental service organizations (DSOs) also drove much of the activity, with 30 deals. Of those, only 16 deals were from PE-backed DSOs, with independent, physician-owned groups pushing into the market in the third quarter. This prominence is consistent with previous quarters: in Q2:26, 27 out of 46 deals were done by PE-backed DSOs and 23 out of 36 in Q3:25 were PE-backed DSO deals.

Nine health systems completed a PMG transaction, with a slight emphasis on OB/GYN practices; there were also seven management services organization deals and two investment firm deals.

Marking its busiest quarter of the year so far, Imagen Dental Partners was the most active buyer in Q3:26 with five transactions. The company expanded its presence in Texas, Washington and Illinois and added seven physicians to its network. Other active buyers include KKR & Co.’s Heartland Dental (four deals), Quad-C Management’s Specialized Dental Partners (four deals) and Hildred Capital Management’s DermCare Management (two deals).

Disclosed spending decreased year over year to $68.7 million across two deals. This is a significant decrease from the $5.7 billion across five deals reported in Q3:25.

The two transactions with a disclosed price are Park Dental Partners, Inc’s purchase of Village Family Dental DSO in North Carolina for $39.1 million and Singapore-based Q&M Dental’s acquisition of Thailand-based Deezy for more than $29.6 million.

“The third quarter’s decreased PMG deal activity underscores the conversations with industry experts we’ve had in the past few months: investors are slowing down on dealmaking and have become more selective with what assets they choose to acquire,” said Kate Humphrey, Editorial Analyst at Irving Levin Associates, which publishes the data on its LevinPro HC platform. “Additionally, between increased transaction scrutiny and elevated interest rates, deal timelines have stretched out, and pushed announcements back by several weeks, or even months.”

All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report, which is part of LevinPro HC, a research intelligence platform published by Irving Levin Associates, LLC. For information, or to order the reports, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating more than 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors. The company was established in 1948 and has offices in New Canaan, Connecticut and North Bethesda, Maryland. The company publishes research reports and newsletters and maintains databases on the healthcare and senior housing M&A markets.