In the last decade, there has been an increasing tendency for medical malpractice plaintiffs to include as defendants not only the health care providers who rendered the allegedly negligent care and the practice groups with which they were affiliated or employed, but also to name those corporations or limited liability companies which either managed or provided support services to the defendant practice groups on a "piercing the corporate veil" or "alter ego" theory. The argument posits that the group and the company by which it is managed are not distinct entities, but rather one enterprise—at least for medical malpractice liability.