Healthcare Practice (Single)

ValIndex's multiples table puts single medical practices at 3.0–5.0× EBITDA in transactions and 2.5–3.5× EBITDA on statutory valuations. The spread is wide because a practice's value depends on whether its patients stay after the owner leaves: a group practice with several doctors, employed staff and a broad patient base sells more easily than a practice built around one physician. With more than 1,000 closures without a successor in 2020–2023 (ZHAW), location and the availability of a successor often matter more than the multiple.

Buyers price: (1) whether the practice can run without the seller — group practices and employed doctors reduce the risk; (2) the patient base and the share of insured-service revenue, which was 89% for sole-proprietor practices in 2015 (BFS); (3) the specialty and its position under the 2026 tariffs; (4) the lease, rooms and equipment; (5) self-dispensing of medicines where the canton allows it; (6) the regional supply situation — in areas with few general practitioners a practice is easier to fill but harder to staff.

BFS STATENT counted 7,709 general-practice and 12,755 specialist-practice units in 2024, 20,464 in total, with 78,845 employees. The BFS practice survey (MAS) counted 17,233 practices and ambulatory centres with 25,439 physicians at the end of 2021; the two statistics count units differently. The FMH counted 44,612 practising physicians in 2025, 55% of them mainly in the practice sector.

Succession is hard because owners are old and successors want employment: practice physicians average 54 years and a third of general practitioners are 60 or older (FMH 2025), while the share of physicians in single practices fell from 56% to 39% in ten years. The common routes are a sale to a chain or group practice — Medbase, Sanacare, Praxis Gruppe Schweiz — taking in younger partners as a group practice, or closure; ZHAW counted more than 1,000 closures without a successor in 2020–2023.

Five trends: (1) single practices give way to group practices — 39% of physicians still work alone, down from 56% in 2015; (2) a general-practitioner shortage, with 40% to be replaced by 2035 (Workforce Study 2025); (3) chains buy practices — Medbase grew to 188 sites and CHF 1.37 billion in 2025; (4) TARDOC and ambulatory flat rates since January 2026 and uniform financing (EFAS) from 2028; (5) specialist practices grow fastest, +41% in units since 2011.

The main risks are: (1) key-person risk — patients may leave with the seller; (2) tariff changes under TARDOC and the ambulatory flat rates since 2026; (3) staffing — practice assistants and successor physicians are scarce; (4) dependence on the lease and the location; (5) regulatory limits on admission of new doctors in some cantons. Due diligence should check the revenue split by service, the patient list, staff contracts and the lease.

The only measured national figure is dated: in 2015 practices organised as sole proprietorships spent 72 of every 100 francs earned on operating costs — staff, rent, supplies and equipment — leaving 28 as the owner's income before tax; practices with salaried physicians spent 90 (BFS MAS, published 2018). Staff is the largest cost; practice employment rose 36% between 2011 and 2024 (BFS STATENT).

Zurich has the most practice employment — 3,838 units with 18,004 employees in 2024 — followed by Lake Geneva (5,284 units, 13,325 employees, many small practices), Northwestern Switzerland (10,072 employees) and Bern (9,571). Central Switzerland has the largest practices, about 5.6 employees per unit. Shortages are greatest in regions with few general practitioners, where closures are not compensated (ZHAW).