Pain Medicine Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

Pain Medicine is a primary medical specialty based on a distinct body of knowledge and a well-defined scope of clinical practice that is founded on science, research and education. It is concerned with the study of pain, the prevention of pain, and the evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation of persons in pain. A comprehensive evaluation incorporates the physical, psychological, cognitive and socio-cultural contributions to pain. The treatment protocol may include pharmacological, invasive, behavioral, cognitive, rehabilitative and complementary strategies provided in a concurrent focused and patient specific manner. The pain medicine physician often serves the patient as a frontline physician regarding their pain, but also may serve as a consultant to other physicians, direct an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary treatment team, conduct research, or advocate for the patient's pai

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 269 of 2,755 active records, or 9.8%, are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. That flag is a self-reported NPPES field, so it is an imperfect proxy for private practice and does not establish a physician's ownership, employment arrangement, or practice size. It should not be interpreted as a direct count of all privately practicing Pain Medicine 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.
• The figures count active NPI records with this taxonomy as primary, not patient volume, clinical workload, or every clinician who provides pain care.
• State and enumeration-year figures describe NPI records, not necessarily where a clinician currently practices or when the clinician began practicing Pain Medicine.
• 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