SIC code for healthcare: Major Group 80, the medical office code 8011, and the NAICS equivalents

This page is for healthcare providers asked for a SIC or NAICS code (by a bank, an insurer, a landlord, a grant application or SAM.gov) and for sellers building healthcare lists who need the codes to filter on.

The SIC codes for healthcare

SIC Major Group 80, Health Services, covers establishments "primarily engaged in furnishing medical, surgical, and other health services to persons." The Census Bureau's concordance maps each code to NAICS 2022:

Two things stand out. Doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy had separate SIC codes; NAICS puts both in 621111. And SIC put dental labs in health services, while NAICS moved them to manufacturing.

The SIC code for a medical office

A doctor's office, group practice or walk-in clinic is SIC 8011 and NAICS 621111, Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists). Practices of psychiatrists are 621112. The specialty doesn't change the code: the Census index lists family physicians, cardiologists, orthopedists and walk-in physicians' offices all under 621111.

The Census index puts "managing offices of physicians and surgeons" and "medical office management services" in 561110, so a practice management company sits outside healthcare in both systems. Telehealth has no index entry: in our reading a telehealth practice takes the code for its clinicians (621111 for physicians, 621330 for therapists). Billing companies have their own page, the NAICS code for medical billing.

How many healthcare businesses there are

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, the Census Bureau's count of establishments with paid employees, by NAICS subsector:

And the largest single codes:

Physician offices are the most common healthcare business, and 52.7% have fewer than five employees. General hospitals are the opposite: 5,777 establishments employ 5.8 million people, about 1,000 each (our calculation). The top states for physician offices are California (29,615), Texas (21,500), Florida (19,994), New York (12,412) and Pennsylvania (7,854).

CBP leaves out most government establishments, so public hospitals and VA clinics aren't in these counts, and it counts locations, not health systems. Sector 62 also includes 624, Social Assistance (child care, food banks, services for the elderly), which SIC puts in Major Group 83, not 80. CBP 2023 uses NAICS 2017; no health care code changed in 2022.

SBA size standards for healthcare codes

For federal contracts, the SBA compares your average annual receipts over your last five completed fiscal years, affiliates included, with the standard for the contract's code. From 13 CFR 121.201 on the eCFR (last amended March 17, 2023):

The small business size standards page explains how receipts and affiliates are counted.

Where the code is used and what a wrong one costs

• Banks, insurers and landlords still ask for SIC on many forms. A practice management company that writes 8011 is describing itself as a medical practice.
• Federal contracts. The contracting officer picks one NAICS code per solicitation. A multispecialty group averaging $18 million is other than small under 621111 but small for an urgent care contract under 621493. An adversely affected party can appeal the code within 10 calendar days of the solicitation.
• Tax returns. The IRS Schedule C list follows NAICS: 621111 for physicians, 621340 for therapists, 621400 for all outpatient care centers, 622000 for hospitals.

Finding healthcare companies by code

EDGAR lists public companies by SIC, but it also uses group codes that aren't four-digit SIC industries: 8000 Services-Health Services, 8060 Services-Hospitals and 8090 Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, NEC. Search the SIC 8062 list and the group codes together. The largest healthcare providers by revenue, from each company's latest 10-K:

Nonprofit and government hospitals and privately owned practices don't file with the SEC, so EDGAR covers few providers. The list of doctors and list of hospitals explain the federal registries that do, and a Bebop search takes plain-language criteria (specialty, number of providers, independent or health-system owned, state) and returns organizations and contacts with the reason each fits.

Worked example: coding a physician group

Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented.

Riverbend Medical Partners (riverbend.example) in Ohio has 22 physicians in family medicine and cardiology, two urgent care clinics and an imaging center, plus a management company that runs billing and HR for the group and two outside practices. Last year: practice revenue $14.0 million, urgent care $3.6 million, imaging $1.9 million; the management company billed the outside practices $0.8 million.

1. The group. Physician practice is 72% of the group's $19.5 million: SIC 8011, NAICS 621111.
2. Extra codes. 621493 for the urgent care clinics and 621512 (SIC 8071) for imaging, listed in SAM.gov.
3. The management company. A separate entity managing offices: SIC 8741, NAICS 561110.
4. Size check. Common ownership makes them affiliates, so the SBA adds their receipts: $20.3 million, over the $16.0 million standard for 621111 and the $19.0 million for 621493. For federal work the group is other than small.

Next step: if you sell into healthcare, start with the largest healthcare companies to see how the big systems and service companies are organized.