Colon & Rectal Surgery Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A colon and rectal surgeon is trained to diagnose and treat various diseases of the intestinal tract, colon, rectum, anal canal and perianal area by medical and surgical means. This specialist also deals with other organs and tissues (such as the liver, urinary and female reproductive system) involved with primary intestinal disease.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 303 active records, or 14.0%, are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. Because the flag is a self-reported NPPES field, it is an imperfect proxy for private practice: business ownership, employment, and affiliation arrangements may not be fully represented by that label.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• Counts are based on active NPPES NPI records and may not equal unique physicians, practices, or current clinical activity.
• Primary taxonomy is a classification field and may not include every clinician who provides colon and rectal surgery.
• First enumeration year describes NPI timing, not necessarily the start of specialty practice or a change in workforce size.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions