As the full implementation of Obamacare nears, and the reforms start to increase at a faster rate. The rate of Podiatrists seeking retirement will escalate over the next 2 to 3 years. A lot of older podiatrists have no interest in EMR, or Obamacare or reimbursement cuts, they will seek retirement before they occur. Additionally, all the additional press about how bad all these reforms are going to be will also push Podiatrists into retirement.

 Now combine that with Podiatric resident graduates coming out with 200,000 dollars worth of Podiatry student loan debt, you have a perfect storm of a lot of grads who banks will not lend to. This will create a vacum of podiatrists who want to retire but no one to sell to. Remember, there are a lot of Podiatrist who counted on selling their podiatric practice to finance their retirement, so they need to sell their practice. While there are group practices in a lot of the areas that will be able to purchase the practice. A lot of your major podiatric super groups may take the approach of, he is old, he may not be able to sell the Podiatry practice. Let us just wait him out, and swoop in when he quits or slows down. With the internet, goodwill is not as valuable as it once was. Honestly, the number one spot on a local google search is more valuable today, then twenty years of treating patients, you may not like that statement but it is true. This comes to the basic point, that with the advent of the internet, are podiatric practices worth any money any more. A young podiatrist can start his own podiatric practice one block from an older one, get his website up and running. Then trounce the older podiatrist. My point is only a sucker right now would pay anything over 100K for the best podiatric practice. Also be skeptical of articles in magazines about how to buy and evaluate practices, remember everybody has an angle. If you need to evaluate a practice retain someone with no dog in the fight.