Pain Medicine (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A physician who provides a high level of care, either as a primary physician or consultant, for patients experiencing problems with acute, chronic or cancer pain in both hospital and ambulatory settings. Patient care needs may also be coordinated with other specialists.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 463 of 3,310 active NPI records, or 14.0%, are flagged as sole proprietors. This is a self-reported NPPES field, so the share is an imperfect proxy for private practice and should not be read as a complete count of independently practicing physicians.

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.
• - NPI records are administrative records and may not equal unique practicing physicians or current clinical capacity.
• - The primary taxonomy is reported in NPPES, and providers may have other taxonomies or update their records over time.
• 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