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Overhead is tricky. Industry experts will often benchmark against peers of the same specialty. (i.e. Family Practice 60%) This can be useful but it hardly tells the whole story. In reality, a good overhead rate depends largely on practice styles, physician preferences and the strategic position the group has taken. This can quickly observed by looking within a group.  You will have an overall group OH ratio of 50% but one physician has a 40% ratio and another has 70% ratio. Why? Practice styles and patient population. Is the physician with the 70% doing something wrong? Should it be lower? No, on the contrary it is the OH ratio that his practice style demands. This seems vague, I know, but to tell you that a 50% OH ratio should be your target is a complete falsehood. To determine what your appropriate OH ratio is you have to first understand what type of practice you are and what things are important to you. For example, part of your strategic position may be to have a full service lab to enhance patient care and experience. The decision is likely going to drive up your ratio. If your target is 50% OH and a high tech laboratory drives the OH ratio to 60% you might reject that strategic direction. However, you may gain or retain patients that you would not have by offering a service the other guy doesn't have and you OH may go up but net income is also higher. My advice, know what your ratio is and have a strategic purpose for it to be that amount. Don't get hung up on what the 'industry' says is appropriate and the goal is not to keep OH ratio down, its to maximize profitability. This some times means increasing the OH ratio. The old adage 'a smaller piece of a much larger pie' can quickly demonstrate that this principle.