Why are groups like USFAS (notice no mention of podiatry) buying up podiatry practices ? A better question is why are so many podiatrists selling their practices to these types of groups ?   The answer is a simple one. Podiatry is a dying profession and there is simply no future in private practice.  Everyone is panicked and they are selling their practice to scam groups. They will take whatever money they can get and sell the practice now.  Think about it.  If you had a very successful practice and saw that it would continue to be successful in the future, why would you sell your practice now ? 
Here is the best part  ……………. 
These groups that buy your practice make you invest part of the purchase price, back into their group to give them phony cash reserves, to make them look more profitable than they are.  These groups are simply collecting practices.   The way mortgages were collected before the great housing crash.  These groups are simply trying to fake large profits by not paying their bills, making you invest in their group, and trying to convince potential buyers that podiatry practices are worth investing in. 
It is one giant Ponzi scam, perhaps the greatest ever perpetrated in our profession.  If things were that good people would not be selling their practices.  It’s really that simple. Nobody is applying to the schools.  Everyone is trying to sell their practice and get out now.  You have a plethora of healthcare providers, giving patients the same services other than trimming toenails and calluses and hustling orthotics and doing unnecessary surgeries on patients.  If you want to succeed you must pick on minority patients or people who don’t speak English well, or you go someplace where there are not orthopedic surgeons.  
Take a look at the classes in the schools.  Now they look like the United Nations.  Podiatry has become one big joke.  That is why admissions are down.  People know what’s going on.  They know that podiatry is not part of mainstream medicine.  Smart pre-med students do not want to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and spend seven years to become a podiatrist  (so you can call yourself a foot and ankle surgeon)  and then go out and trim toenails and calluses all day, barely making a living.   What a farce, the profession has become.