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

National totals

What this specialty covers

An internist who treats diseases of joints, muscle, bones and tendons. This specialist diagnoses and treats arthritis, back pain, muscle strains, common athletic injuries and "collagen" diseases.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 1,379 records, or 16.7%, have the sole-proprietor flag in NPPES. This is a self-reported field and an imperfect proxy for private practice: it may not reflect group ownership, employment arrangements, or later changes in how a practice is organized.

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 can represent individuals or organizations and may not map one-to-one to unique physicians or practices.
• - NPPES fields can be incomplete, outdated, or changed after a record is created.
• - State counts describe NPPES registration records, not patient volume, clinical workload, or access to care.
• 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