To study the organization of private health services in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, a survey was carried out in 1994 involving 174 facilities registered at the Brazilian Institute of Statistics and Geography ­ IBGE. Health services characteristics studied were the following: number of physicians, hospital beds, production and cost of outpatient services, and legislative aspects. Health services were classified according to the amount of resources each type of granting agency contributed to support outpatient care. We found that the majority (51.1%) of private health care services in Salvador do not depend on public funds. The main sources of revenue for health services are private health insurance (41.9%) and other kinds of private health plans (54%). These changes in the organization of health services challenge health planners to review strategies for municipalization of health care and the relations between public and private health services in Brazil.