Every private anesthesia group in the United States knows that practice management companies (PMCs) in the business of acquiring and operating anesthesia practices are growing rapidly.  This is part of a general acceleration in health care merger and acquisition activity driven by healthcare reform and by the economic uncertainty of the last few years.  Physician practices have become one of the fastest-growing targets; larger entities such as health systems, insurance companies and PMCs are buying up hospital-based specialties with a view toward participating in accountable care organizations (ACOs) and receiving bonuses for improving quality and decreasing costs.Hospitalists, whose specialty barely existed twenty years ago, now number more than 30,000.  Hospitalists attract the interest of venture capital and expanding corporations because of their role in managing acute inpatient care.  Emergency medicine has a long history of PMC partnerships.Anesthesiologists, as specialists in the management of perioperative care, are likewise attractive candidates for acquisition. ...