Technician/Technologist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A broad category grouping different kinds of technologists and technicians. See individual definitions.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this broad eye and vision category, the 12.1% sole-proprietor share means that this portion of active records is flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. The field is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy for private practice, since it may not capture every independent arrangement or represent a direct count of privately practicing clinicians.

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 active NPI records, not necessarily unique people, jobs, locations, or practices.
• This broad taxonomy includes different technician and technologist roles, so the counts should not be treated as a measure of demand or growth.
• 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