Fifteen of the 400 richest people in America made their fortunes in healthcare — and four of them are physicians, according to Forbes’ annual ranking.
At the top of the pack is Thomas Frist Jr., MD, and his family, whose net worth is a whopping $33.6 billion.
Frist and his father co-founded Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Healthcare in the 1960s, which owns 190 hospitals and 2,400 sites of care. Frist, a former Air Force flight surgeon, is the 32nd wealthiest American but the richest person in the country with a healthcare business.
Next in line is Robert Duggan, the 96th richest person in the nation, who has a net worth of $13.4 billion. In 2015, Duggan sold his biopharmaceutical company Pharmacyclics to Abbvie for a hefty profit. Duggan then invested in the oncology drug company Summit Therapeutics, where he is now co-CEO.
Charlie Mills is the third wealthiest healthcare billionaire and the 141st richest person in the U.S. He’s the chairman of the medical supplies giant Medline, which his dad and uncle founded in the 1960s.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, is the fourth richest healthcare billionaire and 151st wealthiest overall. Soon-Shiong is a surgeon who invented the blockbuster drug protein-bound paclitaxel (Abraxane) for treating cancer. He also founded and sold the companies American Pharmaceutical Partners and Abraxis BioScience. Soon-Shiong owns the Los Angeles Times and about 4% of the Los Angeles Lakers.
A few other doctors and scientists have made their fortunes in healthcare:
Keith Dunleavy, MD, founder of the cloud-based software and healthcare analytics firm InovalonAugust Troendle, MD, founder and CEO of Medpace, a clinical research companyLi Ge, PhD, chairman and CEO of WuXi AppTec, a company that provides services to biotech and pharma industries
While the 15 healthcare billionaires have a combined net worth of more than $136 billion, tech giants still overwhelmingly top the Forbes list.
Elon Musk is the richest man by a wide margin; his net worth of $908 billion is more than double that of the second wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is $378 billion. For reference, Musk’s net worth is $874.4 billion greater than Frist, the richest healthcare billionaire, making Musk about 27 times richer than Frist.
Healthcare’s 2026 Top U.S. Billionaires
1. Thomas Frist, Jr., MD (32/400)
HCA Healthcare
Net worth: $33.6 billion
2. Robert Duggan (96)
Pharmacyclics
Net worth: $13.4 billion
3. Charlie Mills (141)
Medline
Net worth: $11 billion
4. Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD (151)
Abraxane
Net worth: $10.3 billion
5. Li Ge, PhD (156)
WuXi AppTec
Net worth: $10.1 billion
6. Carl Cook (187)
Cook Group
Net worth: $8.8 billion
7. Ronda Stryker (241)
Stryker Corp.
Net worth: $7.1 billion
8. John Brown (251)
Stryker Corp.
Net worth: $6.9 billion
9. Reinhold Schmieding (293)
Arthrex
Net worth: $5.8 billion
10. Andy Mills (311)
Medline
Net worth: $5.5 billion
11. Jon Stryker (325)
Stryker Corp.
Net worth: $5.2 billion
12. Wendy Abrams (367)
Medline
Net worth: $4.7 billion
13. Stewart Rahr, JD (367)
Kinray
Net worth: $4.7 billion
14. Keith Dunleavy, MD (375)
Inovalon
Net worth: $4.6 billion
15. August Troendle, MD (396)
Medpace
Net worth: $4.4 billion
Both Charlie and Andy Mills, as well as Abrams, Dunleavy, and Troendle, are all newcomers to the Forbes 400 this year.
