PESP featured in a Fault Lines documentary highlighting private equity’s impact on hospitals and patient care
June 9, 2025
A Fault Lines documentary titled “Gutted: Profits Over Patients,” released in May, focuses on the troubling case of Steward Health Care and the consequences of private equity profiteering in healthcare.
Eileen O’Grady, Director of Programs at PESP, was featured in the documentary, providing insights into the complex web of private equity ownership and its harmful, and sometimes deadly, impacts on patient care.
The documentary focuses on Steward Health Care, which was formerly one of the largest for-profit hospital operators in the United States and was owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management until 2020. The film examines how Steward’s quest for quick returns for investors allegedly led to a decline in patient care, resulting in numerous malpractice lawsuits and wrongful death claims.
In the documentary, Eileen explained how private equity firms often market themselves as the solution to a hospital system’s problems: “Private equity firms can kind of bill themselves as the white knights that are coming in to save these hospitals to make investments to improve them, but we’ve seen time and time again that that’s not what happens.” In reality, the private equity business model often leaves many of these hospitals worse off than they were when they started.
Eileen also spoke to the challenges of unearthing private equity’s influence: “Private equity firms are incredibly secretive. And there are very few requirements for disclosures that they have to make. Private equity firms operate through dozens of subsidiaries, through legal structures that are complex. They’re difficult for even the most sophisticated lawyers and regulators to untangle.”
The documentary highlights the urgent need for increased oversight, regulation, and advocacy to protect patients, hospital staff, and communities from the adverse effects of private equity in healthcare.
PESP has investigated the lack of transparency and accountability of private equity firms that invest in healthcare. Following the Steward Health Care bankruptcy last year, PESP published a report detailing how a private equity firm contributed to the hospital system’s financial collapse. More recently, PESP also wrote about the continuing consequences of this bankruptcy one year later.
