Veterinary Management Groups (VMG): A Practice Owner’s Guide for 2026

• VMG is the category’s heavyweight. Veterinary Management Groups runs 50+ study groups and 1,600+ practices across the US and Canada, built on benchmarking, peer problem-solving, and group purchasing.
• The model is the study group. Roughly 18 to 22 non-competing owners meet in person twice a year with a facilitator, and compare real numbers through VMG’s DATALINK system in between.
• The purchasing program is a real, tangible perk. Members get access to 60+ Preferred Partners, one of the larger buying programs in North America.
• It is built for the broad base of independent owners, and serves them well. That is exactly why a $4 or $7 million multi-doctor owner can end up the most advanced person in the room.
• Above $3 million in revenue, the field narrows. OwnerExchange is the one community built specifically for owners of 3+ DVM practices doing $3 to $10M and up, so you are matched with true peers instead of mentoring the room.

A few months back, an owner asked me a question I get a lot.

“Should I join VMG?”

She runs three locations, well past $5 million, and she’d heard the name for years without ever getting a straight answer about what it actually is. Two friends loved it. One had quietly let her membership lapse. Nobody had explained the model to her in plain English.

So that’s what this is. A clear, honest look at Veterinary Management Groups, what it is, how it works, what it costs you in time and money, and who it fits best. I’ll keep it factual.

And yes, I helped build a peer community of my own, so you should read me knowing I have a horse in this race. I’d still rather give you the straight version than a sales pitch. VMG is a genuinely good organization that has served thousands of owners well. Here’s how to tell if it’s right for you.

What are Veterinary Management Groups (VMG) in 2026?

Veterinary Management Groups, also known as Veterinary Study Groups, is a membership organization that runs peer study groups for independent practice owners. VMG reports more than 50 groups and over 1,600 practices across the US and Canada. The core idea is simple: put a set of non-competing owners in a room, have them share real numbers, and let them sharpen each other.

The format has been around for decades, and VMG is the most recognized name in it. If you’ve heard exactly one peer-group brand in veterinary medicine, odds are it’s this one.

Think of it as three pieces working together. A study group of fellow owners. A benchmarking system that puts your financials next to theirs. And a purchasing program that uses the membership’s combined size to negotiate sharper pricing. Let’s take each.

VMG at a glance

Most owners only ever hear the name, never the structure. Here’s the actual shape of it, drawn from VMG’s own materials, alongside where a community like OwnerExchange sits for the top tier.

	Veterinary Management Groups (VMG)	OwnerExchange
Model	Peer study groups (also called Veterinary Study Groups)	Private peer community for the top tier
Scale	50+ groups, 1,600+ practices, US and Canada	Built for the sharpest ~5% of independent owners
Group size	~18 to 22 owners per study group (some materials cite 18 to 24)	Small, caliber-matched mastermind PODS
Format	In person, twice yearly, member-set agendas, facilitated	Virtual mastermind PODS plus a private 24/7 forum
Focus areas	Benchmarking, problem-solving, leadership development, peer support	Profitability, hiring and retention, growth, the future of independent ownership
Purchasing program	60+ Preferred Partners, one of the larger programs in North America	None, this is a strategy room, not a buying group
Best fit	The broad base of independent owners wanting structure, data, and buying power	Owners of 3+ DVM practices doing $3 to $10M and up

Read the bottom row carefully, because it’s the one that matters most for where you sit.

VMG is built for the broad base of independent ownership, and that is exactly why it has thousands of practices in it. The wider the door, the bigger the room. It’s the right design for them and a real benefit to the owners it serves.

It also means an owner running three doctors at $6 million walks into a general-membership room and is often the most advanced person there. Not always. But often enough that it’s worth naming before you join.

How VMG study groups work

Here’s the engine. Each VMG study group is roughly 18 to 22 peers, with some materials citing a slightly wider 18 to 24, made up of owners and other practice leaders whose practices are similar in size and objectives.

The key design choice is geography. Members are placed far enough apart that they’re not competing for the same clients. That distance is what makes the candor possible. You’ll say things to an owner three states away that you’d never say to the practice across town.

Groups meet in person twice a year, set their own agendas, and develop their own personality over time. VMG handles the logistics and supplies trained facilitators plus access to speakers and content. So the owners focus on the conversation, not the event planning.

VMG sorts the work into four focus areas: benchmarking, problem-solving, leadership development, and peer support. In practice those blur together. You benchmark your numbers, find an outlier, bring it to the group as a problem, and walk out with three owners who’ve already solved it.

The benchmarking system: DATALINK

This is the part that separates a study group from a dinner club. VMG members compare selected financial data through a system VMG calls DATALINK.

Members submit their numbers using a shared chart of accounts, so the comparisons are apples to apples. VMG publishes the standard jointly with AAHA as the VMG-AAHA Chart of Accounts, refreshed most recently in 2026. Standardization is the unglamorous thing that makes benchmarking actually work.

You get reports on a quarterly and annual basis. Revenue, expenses, cost of goods, efficiency measures, and the like. And you see yourself against more than one yardstick: your own trend, your group’s average, the wider VMG membership, and the top performers in the network.

That last comparison is the useful one. Knowing the average is fine. Knowing what the top 20 percent run, and how far you sit from them, is what changes a decision.

The purchasing program

Now the perk owners feel in their bank account. VMG runs what it describes as one of the leading group purchasing programs in North America, with access to more than 60 Preferred Partners.

A group purchasing organization, or GPO, pools the buying volume of many practices to negotiate pricing no single practice could get alone. On products, equipment, and services, those negotiated rates add up across a year.

For a lot of owners this is the easiest line on the membership to justify. The buying program is concrete and measurable in a way “peer support” never quite is. It’s also worth being clear-eyed about: a purchasing program is a cost lever, not a strategy partner. Both matter. They’re just different jobs.

A great study group sharpens how you run the practice you have. The question for a larger owner is whether the room is operating at your altitude. See who’s actually at the OwnerExchange table →

Who owns VMG now?

A question that comes up, and a fair one given how much the profession is consolidating. The short version: VMG sits inside Covetrus.

Covetrus, an animal-health technology and services company, made a strategic investment in Veterinary Study Groups in 2020, becoming its majority owner. Per the announcement, Veterinary Study Groups operates as a standalone company inside Covetrus, with its team intact.

For a member, the day-to-day model runs as it did before: the study groups, the benchmarking, the purchasing program. It’s reasonable to ask any group how its ownership shapes its vendor relationships, and just as reasonable to decide it doesn’t change the value you get.

What VMG does well, and where it leaves a gap

Let me be specific, because “it’s great for networking” is the kind of phrase that helps no one decide.

The strengths are real. Structured benchmarking against a large, standardized dataset is hard to replicate alone. A twice-yearly in-person rhythm with a facilitator keeps the work honest. And the buying program delivers a measurable return from day one. For a solo or small multi-doctor owner who wants structure, data, and leverage with vendors, that’s a strong package.

The gap isn’t a flaw. It’s a matter of who the room was built for.

A general-membership study group mixes practice sizes by design, which is exactly what makes the broad benchmarking work. But it also means a 3-plus doctor owner doing several million in revenue is often comparing against, and quietly mentoring, practices a few rungs down. The benchmarking gets less apples-to-apples the further up you sit. And the conversation that a high-revenue owner most needs, the one about scaling past the edge of the map, is rarely the one the room is having.

That’s not VMG falling short. It’s a different owner needing a different table.

Where this leaves the larger owner

Walk back through that table with one filter on: a 3-plus doctor practice doing $3 million or more. Watch how the field thins.

The study groups put you alongside much smaller practices, so the comparison drifts. The coaching programs are built to move a good owner to great, not to push a great owner past the frontier. The purchasing networks are about vendor savings, not boardroom strategy. Every one of them is excellent at its actual job. None was built for that specific seat.

That gap is the entire reason OwnerExchange exists. It isn’t another group with a wider door. It’s the opposite: a community built specifically for owners of 3+ DVM practices doing $3 to $10 million and up, the sharpest 5 percent of independent owners, in a room where for once you’re not the most advanced person at the table.

What’s behind it is a small, caliber-matched mastermind POD led by an experienced veterinary thought leader, plus a private 24/7 forum of owners who get exactly what your seat demands. The agenda is the one larger owners actually lose sleep over: profitability without burnout, hiring and keeping real talent, growth and expansion timing, and the future of independent ownership in a consolidating market.

So the honest answer to “should I join VMG” depends on where you are. Below a certain level, you have strong options, VMG very much among them, and you should take one. Above $3 million, there’s a room built specifically for you.

We’re selective on purpose, and sometimes the honest answer after a conversation is “not yet.” That’s the point. The room only works when every owner in it belongs there.

How to decide if VMG is right for you

Skip the brochure test. Ask these four instead, and you’ll know fast.

Who’s actually in the group you’d join? Not VMG overall, the specific room. Ask the revenue range, the doctor count, how those owners operate. The single best predictor of value is whether the others are at or above your level.

Will you protect the time? Two in-person meetings a year, plus prep and travel, plus quarterly data entry. If you won’t defend that on the calendar, you’ll get a sliver of the value.

Will you open your books? The benchmarking only works if your numbers go in clean and honest. A sanitized P&L buys you sanitized insight.

Is the format how you actually work? Twice-yearly in person suits some owners and frustrates others who want help the Tuesday a problem lands, not four months later. Match it to your real life.

If you can sit in on a meeting before committing, do it. One real session tells you more than any sales call.

Further reading

If you’re weighing a room, these go deeper on the decision and the problems a good one is built to solve.

• Are veterinary peer groups worth it? An owner’s honest guide: the full landscape, the real costs, and how to judge any group on caliber.
• The veterinary practice owner community: who’s in the OwnerExchange room and how the PODS work.
• Veterinary leadership development: the owner-leadership work that fills every serious peer-group agenda.

Frequently asked questions

What are Veterinary Management Groups (VMG)?

Veterinary Management Groups, also called Veterinary Study Groups, is a membership organization that runs peer study groups for independent practice owners. VMG reports more than 50 groups and over 1,600 practices across the US and Canada. Each study group is a set of non-competing owners who meet to benchmark numbers, solve problems, and learn together, supported by a group purchasing program.

How big is a VMG study group?

VMG describes each study group as roughly 18 to 22 peers, and some materials cite a slightly wider 18 to 24, made up of owners and other practice leaders whose practices are similar in size and objectives. Members are placed far enough apart geographically that they’re not competing for the same clients, which is what lets them share real numbers openly.

How often do VMG groups meet?

VMG study groups meet in person twice a year and set their own agendas. VMG handles the logistics and provides trained facilitators plus access to speakers and content. Between meetings, members compare financial data through VMG’s DATALINK system on a quarterly and annual basis.

Does VMG have a group purchasing program?

Yes. VMG operates what it calls one of the leading purchasing programs in North America, giving members access to more than 60 Preferred Partners across categories like products, services, and equipment. The buying power is one of the main tangible benefits alongside the peer study groups and benchmarking.

Who owns VMG?

Covetrus, an animal-health technology and services company, made a strategic investment in Veterinary Study Groups in 2020, becoming its majority owner. Veterinary Study Groups operates as a standalone company inside Covetrus, and the study-group model continues to run as it did before.

What is the best veterinary peer group for a practice owner over $3 million in revenue?

VMG and the other established groups are built for the broad base of independent owners and serve them well. A 3-plus doctor practice doing $3 to $10 million and up is often the most advanced owner in a general-membership room. OwnerExchange is the community built specifically for that top tier, with caliber-matched mastermind PODS and a private forum, so the owner is finally surrounded by true peers.

Sources

Veterinary Management Groups — primary materials

1. Veterinary Management Groups (VMG). Homepage: scale, purchasing program, and membership overview. myvmg.com
2. Veterinary Management Groups (VMG). “VMG Peer Groups: Elevating Independent Veterinary Practice Owners”: group size, biannual in-person format, facilitators, four focus areas, non-competing geography, DATALINK. myvmg.com
3. Veterinary Management Groups (VMG). “About Us”: mission and focus areas. myvmg.com
4. Veterinary Management Groups (VMG). “Financial Benchmarking”: DATALINK system, quarterly/annual reports, chart of accounts. myvmg.com
5. Veterinary Management Groups (VMG). “Purchasing Program”: 60+ Preferred Partners. myvmg.com

Benchmarking standard and neutral reporting

6. AAHA. “VMG and AAHA Release Updated Veterinary Chart of Accounts”: joint chart-of-accounts standard for benchmarking. aaha.org
7. PRWeb. “VMG and AAHA Release Updated Veterinary Chart of Accounts to Strengthen Financial Clarity and Benchmarking for Independent Practices” (2026). prweb.com

Ownership and corporate background

8. Covetrus. “Covetrus Makes a Strategic Investment in Veterinary Study Groups”: strategic investment; VSG as a standalone company. covetrus.com
9. Today’s Veterinary Business. “Covetrus invests in Veterinary Study Groups” (2020): 50+ groups, 1,100+ members, 1,500+ practices, biannual meetings, US and Canada. todaysveterinarybusiness.com
10. Covetrus / Business Wire. “Covetrus Makes a Strategic Investment in Veterinary Study Groups” (October 9, 2020): strategic investment and majority ownership; VSG operates as a standalone company. businesswire.com