Self/Physician

A slash that FEC software stored as one key

Some filers type SELF-EMPLOYED in one box and physician in the other. Some mash both into the employer field as Self/Physician. LobbyVault ranks the grouped mash. The $7,384,731 total is those itemized gifts. It is not a census of solo practices and not every self-employed clinician in the file.

Donors who typed PHYSICIAN, MEDICAL DOCTOR, MD, DOCTOR, SELF-EMPLOYED, or Self-Employed/Attorney sit in other rows. Capitalization and the slash are part of the stored key. LobbyVault does not normalize Self/Physician into PHYSICIAN.

The slash is literal. Self Physician without the slash, if stored, is another key. LobbyVault does not treat punctuation as noise. Researchers who normalize clinician strings must do that after export.

1,769 donors — more people, fewer lines than some clinic rows

1,769 unique donors produced 16,708 Self/Physician contribution lines totaling $7,384,731. That is on the order of 9 itemized receipts per donor, a thinner line density than UCLA’s campus acronym or UNITED AIRLINES’ payroll-style volume. The packet does not publish a mean gift or a specialty split.

Party share is not on the industry headline. Independent expenditures and medical-association committee filings are outside the $7,384,731 unless an individual receipt itself carries this employer string. Unitemized gifts never appear.

1,769 unique donors is a large person count relative to the 16,708 lines. Many people, fewer repeats than a payroll PAC-style row. That is a description of the grouped file, not of practice economics.

Questions

How much have Self/Physician-listed donors given federally?

LobbyVault attributes $7,384,731 to the Self/Physician employer string, from 16,708 contributions and 1,769 donors. These are itemized individual receipts, not a hospital PAC and not a NAICS physician-office total. Unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault.

Is Self/Physician the same as PHYSICIAN or SELF-EMPLOYED?

No. PHYSICIAN, MEDICAL DOCTOR, MD, and SELF-EMPLOYED are separate grouped strings. The $7,384,731 total is only receipts whose employer text grouped to Self/Physician, including the slash. Figures are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts are omitted.

Does this include Self Employed/Attorney donors?

No. Self Employed/Attorney is a different combo string with its own guide. A receipt counted here carries the grouped text Self/Physician. Lawyers who used the attorney variant are not in these 1,769 donors. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault.

How many unique donors listed Self/Physician?

The rollup counts 1,769 donors and 16,708 contribution lines. Repeat gifts raise the receipt count. This is not a headcount of solo medical practices. Figures are limited to the FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.