If you have tried to book a dermatology appointment in San Francisco or across the Bay Area recently, you have likely noticed a shift. The independent, neighborhood medical practice where you actually know your doctor is becoming an endangered species.
Instead, a massive wave of private equity (PE) consolidation has quietly swept through Northern California. Behind the scenes, corporate investment firms are buying up historic, independent practices, bundling them into massive healthcare networks, and shifting the focus from patient outcomes to corporate balance sheets.
At CCMD Dermatology, we are proud to stand as the definitive antithesis to this corporate takeover.
The Private Equity Playbook vs. The CCMD Model
To understand why a truly independent practice matters, you have to look at how a private equity-backed practice operates. PE firms utilize a "flip-and-strip" model. They acquire a practice, heavily optimize it for "economies of scale" by cutting overhead, maximize patient volume, and then sell it for a massive profit within 3 to 7 years.
When a corporate board of MBAs runs a dermatology clinic, medicine is reduced to a numbers game. Here is how that corporate playbook directly compares to the care you receive at Caren Campbell MD Dermatology:
| The Corporate PE Playbook | The Independent CCMD Model |
| The "Mid-Level" Bait-and-Switch: To maximize profit margins, corporations often schedule you with less experienced, non-physician providers while still charging premium prices. | 100% Board-Certified Care: Every single consultation, diagnosis, and procedure—from complex medical skin checks to precise cosmetic injectables—is performed entirely by Dr. Campbell herself. |
| The 7-Minute Assembly Line: Success in a corporate model is driven by relative value units (RVUs) and speed. Patients are rushed through a revolving door to hit strict daily quotas. | Time to Be Heard: We operate on a direct-pay model. By stepping outside the administrative gridlock of insurance conglomerates, we protect your time. Your appointments are never rushed. |
| Aggressive Upselling: Corporate clinics face immense pressure to meet product sales quotas, often pushing unnecessary lasers, packages, or skincare lines that don't serve your skin. | Ethical, Transparent Medicine: Dr. Campbell is known for her direct, candid approach. If you don't need a treatment, she will tell you. The focus is entirely on natural, refreshed results—not meeting a sales goal. |
Bypassing the Legal Loophole: True Physician Ownership
Historically, laws known as the Corporate Practice of Medicine were designed to prevent non-doctors from owning medical clinics, ensuring a doctor’s loyalty remained with the patient—not a shareholder.
Today, private equity firms sidestep this law using a sophisticated workaround: they create a corporate business entity (an MSO) that collects all the profit behind the scenes, while installing a token "friendly physician" as the clinical face of the company.
At CCMD, there are no corporate veils. Dr. Caren Campbell MD, FAAD is the sole owner, the sole operator, and the sole physician. There is no board of directors demanding a higher EBITDA, no venture capitalists pulling the strings, and no short-term exit strategy to sell your medical records to the highest corporate bidder.
Keeping Medicine in the Bay Area Personal
When a corporate entity is left holding the bag, future generations of doctors find their clinical autonomy stripped away, and patients suffer from fractured, impersonal care.
Choosing a dermatologist shouldn't feel like visiting a fast-food franchise. Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and your face is an artistic, anatomical structure that requires an expert hand—not a corporate quota.
We choose to remain independent because we believe the soul of medicine belongs in the exam room, shared strictly between a doctor and a patient. If you are tired of the corporate assembly line and are looking for meticulous, board-certified, and transparent dermatological care right here in San Francisco, we are here for you.