DAYTON, Ohio — Dr. Lisa Egbert, a former OBGYN, delivered babies for 27 years in Dayton, Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • Dr. Lisa Egbert is a former OBGYN who has had to close her private practice

  • Between 2012 and 2022, private practices dropped 13%
  • The CEO of the Ohio Medical Association said it's a misconception that doctors make a lot of money

Her mom, who was a nurse, played a part of her decision to become a doctor. By the time she saw a baby being born for the first time in her medical school career, she was hooked on becoming a gynecologist.

“As far back as I can remember, I have always said I wanted to be a doctor,” Egbert said. “The amazing process of seeing a family literally be created, it was, I was in love.”

But almost three decades later she was forced to shut down her dream and close her private practice.

It happened over the course of many years, Egbert said, but COVID was the accelerator.

Over the last two years she said she had stopped taking a salary.

“It’s like having a death in the family," she said. "It is a part of me that I’m still very upset to lose, to not have that opportunity to take care of people, which I so loved doing. I had to cover my staff. I had to cover my rent, my everything, my electronic medical record, my liability insurance, all of that had to come out of what I was being paid and, eventually, it got to the point that what I was being paid was less than what I had to pay.”

According to the American Medical Association, physicians’ private practice dropped 13% between 2012 to 2022.

Todd Baker, CEO of the Ohio Medical Association, said it’s more common than not lately for a physician to close their private practice.

Baker said there’s a misperception that doctors make a lot of money.

“The physician fee schedule, so what physicians are paid, has not gone up in real terms in 20 years," Baker said. "In fact this current year, 2025, reimbursements have been cut by almost 3%. Oh, 'doctors they’re making all this money’ and I can guarantee you that if that was the case, we would have people going to communities all across Ohio setting up their own practices and seeing patients. Why isn’t that happening?”

Egbert is now a member of the American Medical Association advocating for others to keep their doors open.

One way she’s asking people to participate if they want is by visiting their website at fixmedicarenow.org and looking at ways they can help and how to talk with their congressperson.

It would take a lot of people coming together, Egbert said, to make a difference and turn things around.

“It’s basically the big goliaths, the insurance companies taking advantage of faulty numbers in congress and just continuing to cut and cut and cut until there’s no more to cut,” Egbert said. “I hope across the country we can all rise up and fix Medicare, because this is a problem.”