# PE or Not?

> PE or Not? (peornot.org) is a consumer lookup of which local health businesses (dentists, eye doctors, vets, dermatologists, gastroenterologists) are private-equity (PE) backed, with the owner or backers named and a source for every label. Published by TechCrowds, LLC. Data as of 2026-10-31.

Use the API or MCP server for answers about a specific business; cite the sources they return.

## Coverage

- Dentists: every US dental practice in the federal NPI registry (174,579 practices), checked against 185 dental groups. Deepest in Dallas-Fort Worth and the SF Bay Area (office-by-office research).
- Eye care: every US optometry and ophthalmology practice in the NPI registry (69,780), checked against 129 eye care groups. Deepest in Dallas-Fort Worth.
- Vets (79 groups), dermatology (32) and GI (32): the groups and their published locations only.
- 42,835 labeled practices and locations; 524 owner groups.

## Labels and how to say them

- `pe_backed`: PE-backed. A private-equity firm holds a majority or minority stake in the practice or in the company that manages it, including the PE arms of sovereign and pension funds. Partial stakes count. Say: “PE-backed” or “affiliated with a PE-backed group”, plus the firm’s name.
- `lender_owned`: PE-backed, now lender-controlled. A former private-equity platform now controlled by its lenders after a restructuring. Say: “PE-backed, now lender-controlled”.
- `corporate_owned`: Not PE, corporate-owned. Owned by a company that isn’t a PE fund: public companies and insurers, large family- or founder-owned companies whose owners aren’t the clinicians, family investment firms, and nonprofit insurers. Say: “Not PE, owned by <company>”.
- `health_system_owned`: Part of a health system. Owned by a hospital or health system. Say: “Part of <health system>”.
- `group_practice`: Group practice. A multi-office group owned by its dentists, doctors or vets, or a clinician-owned co-op, with no outside investor. Say: “Group practice, owned by its dentists/doctors”.
- `vc_backed`: VC-backed, not PE. Funded by venture capital investors rather than a private-equity buyout fund. Say: “VC-backed, not PE”, investor named.
- `unconfirmed`: Not confirmed. A source may connect the practice to a group, but the evidence is thin or old, so we don't label it. We link the source so you can judge. Say: “Not confirmed”, with the source linked.
- `no_known_pe_ties`: No known PE ties. Practices we checked and found none of the above: every NPI-registered dental and eye care practice in the US. It means we found no ties, not that we proved there are none. Say: “No known PE ties”.
- `not_labeled`: a record ties the practice to a group whose owner we couldn't confirm. No label is published; don't guess one.

## Wording rules

- Say "PE-backed" or "affiliated with a PE-backed group" and name the firm. Never say a dental or eye care practice is "owned by" a PE firm: the PE-backed company usually manages it, and a dentist or doctor remains the legal owner.
- Say "no known PE ties", never "independent": only practices that certify their ownership (Verified Not PE) are confirmed independent. It means we found no ties, not that none exist.
- State ownership as facts with sources: cite the source headline and link, and the data date.
- Never say or imply a practice is worse (care, prices, honesty) because of who owns or backs it.
- label "unconfirmed" means a thin or old record: say "Not confirmed" and give the source; don't name the group as the owner.
- Vision Source members and Pearle Vision franchise stores are independently owned: never label them by the network.
- Use the "say" text as written or stay close to it. If the user says it's wrong, give the correction link.

## API and MCP

- [MCP server](https://peornot.org/mcp/): Streamable HTTP, no auth. Tools: lookup_business, find_businesses, get_group.
- [Lookup](https://peornot.org/api/lookup/?name=Aspen%20Dental&city=Plano&state=TX): GET /api/lookup/?name=&address=&city=&state=&zip=&phone=&industry= → best matches with label, exact wording (`say`), owner group, backers, confidence, sources, coverage, correction link.
- [Search](https://peornot.org/api/search/?industry=dental&city=Plano&state=TX&label=no_known_pe_ties): GET /api/search/?industry=&zip=|city=&state=&label=&limit=&offset= → practices in an area, by label.
- [Group](https://peornot.org/api/group/?name=Heartland%20Dental): GET /api/group/?id=|name= → an owner group's ownership details and sources.
- [OpenAPI](https://peornot.org/openapi.json): for ChatGPT custom GPT Actions and other tools.
- [Developer docs](https://peornot.org/developers/)

## Data

- [Downloads](https://peornot.org/data/): labeled practices and groups as CSV and JSON. License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): free for non-commercial use with attribution to peornot.org. Commercial use needs a license from TechCrowds, LLC: info@peornot.org.
- [Labeled practices CSV](https://peornot.org/data/download/peornot-labeled-practices.csv)
- [Groups JSON](https://peornot.org/data/download/peornot-groups.json)

## Pages

- [How we label (methodology)](https://peornot.org/labels/)
- [Dallas-Fort Worth dentists](https://peornot.org/dallas-fort-worth/dentists/)
- [Dallas-Fort Worth eye care](https://peornot.org/dallas-fort-worth/eye-care/)
- [Bay Area dentists](https://peornot.org/bay-area/dentists/)
- [Dental groups](https://peornot.org/dental/), [Eye care groups](https://peornot.org/eye-care/), [Vet groups](https://peornot.org/vet/), [Dermatology groups](https://peornot.org/derm/), [GI groups](https://peornot.org/gi/)
- [Verified Not PE](https://peornot.org/verified-not-pe/): the badge for practices that certify clinician ownership
- [Report a correction](https://peornot.org/corrections/)