Orthotist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A health care professional who is specifically educated and trained to manage comprehensive orthotic patient care, including musculoskeletal and neuromuscular anomalies resulting from injuries or disease processes involving the lower extremity, upper extremity or spinal segment/s and positional deformation of the cranium. Orthotists assess specific patient needs, formulate an appropriate treatment plan, implement the treatment plan and provide follow-up care.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the sole-proprietor share indicates how many Orthotist NPI records are flagged that way in NPPES, not how many orthotists practice independently. The field is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy for private practice because it may not capture ownership, employment, group structure, or billing arrangements.

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 cover active NPI records with Orthotist as the primary taxonomy, not every professional who may provide orthotic services or every unique person.
• NPI enumeration and taxonomy records can change as providers update their NPPES information, so state and year comparisons are snapshots.
• 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