Private Equity Healthcare Acquisitions – March 2026

In light of continued investor interest in healthcare and therisks associated with private equity ownership of healthcare companies, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project is tracking private equity-backed healthcare acquisitions. Below is a list of private equity healthcare buyouts, growth investments, and add-on acquisitions completed during March 2026. We will continue to track acquisitions on a monthly basis.

See February 2026 acquisitions here.

In March we tracked eight buyouts, 68 add-on acquisitions, and 23 growth/expansion investments.

Private equity acquired at least five eye care companies through add-on transactions 

Private equity firms may see ophthalmology as a profitable investment opportunity due to an aging population in need of care, a high volume of procedures, and fragmentation of private practices. Yashaswini Singh, assistant professor at Brown University and PESP advisory board member, noted in a 2026Medscape article, “A big part of the private-equity model relies on platform-and-add-on consolidation.” The article explained that “Firms invest in an initial platform practice and then gradually acquire smaller surrounding practices and then roll them up into a larger entity.” According to a2022 KFF Health News article, the President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology explained that these investments from private equity firms can help doctors expand their practices and negotiate better prices for supplies, but the firms’ focus on maximizing profit may risk compromising patient care.

Researchers for a 2022JAMA Network paper about private equity acquisitions of dermatology, gastroenterology, and ophthalmology practices found that, “among a large commercially insured population, private equity acquisitions of physician practices were associated with increased health care spending and several measures of utilization.” PESP covered the findings in a 2022blog post.

A study published in 2025 inHealth Affairs found that, “relative to matched controls, physicians in PE-acquired practices decreased the number of retinal detachment repairs by 19.6 percent after acquisition” in a study that examined the changes in the procedure for practices acquired from 2014 to 2022. The authorsdescribe retinal detachment surgery as “a key example of an emergency condition for which disease burden and profitability diverge.” Emergency surgery is oftenrequired within days of retinal detachment to prevent irreversible vision loss, and retinal detachment surgery has a cost structure that often exceeds federal reimbursement rates. Theresearchers suggested that “these findings shed light on how PE acquisitions can affect the provision of services that do not present financial opportunities for investors.” PESP wrote about the study and its findings in a 2025blog post, noting that the study “adds to evidence suggesting that private equity’s short-term profit incentives contribute to reduced healthcare access for patients in vulnerable populations.”

Investment in eye care has been widespread. In 2022,KFF Health Newscited an analysis that found that 16 of the 25 biggest health care investors identified by PitchBook had bought stakes in optometry and ophthalmology practices. The samearticle noted that “private equity firms are investing in the offices of doctors who prescribe at high rates two of the most common macular degeneration eye drugs, meaning the doctors are likely seeing high volumes of patients and thus are more profitable.” Theauthor closed by noting that “some health care experts worry that private equity companies could eventually be left holding an overly leveraged bag if other firms don’t want to buy the practices they’ve invested in, which could lead to the closures of those practices and ultimately even more consolidation.”

Private equity acquired at least four fertility treatment companies in March 

PitchBook reports from2023 and2024 outline some of the driving forces behind increased demand for fertility treatment. In its 2023 report PitchBookstated that, “As more people look to have children later in life, demand for services that can aid reproduction has increased.” PitchBookreported in 2024 that “demand has been driven by delayed motherhood, LGBTQ+ family planning, increasing fertility issues and growing employer coverage, but many of the largest IVF providers have already been acquired as the market consolidates.”

Fertility treatment is a big industry. According toPitchBook in 2023, “In a recent report, investment bank Harris Williams estimates the global fertility services industry to be worth $8 billion and projects in vitro fertilization services will grow roughly 10% annually through 2025.” An expert interviewed for the2024 PitchBook report described why private equity may be so interested in the fertility industry, because it is “generally more recession-resistant and that a significant out-of-pocket component for fertility services insulates it from some of the pricing pressures in other areas of health care.”

AJAMA Network research letter in 2025 about ownership of US fertility clinics through 2023 found that “there is rapid and ongoing growth in private equity investment in US fertility care. This study’s data predict that by 2023, the majority of IVF cycles were performed at private equity–affiliated clinics.” Theresearchers matched data that fertility clinics are required to report to the CDC, including the number of IVF cycles performed, with clinic association with private equity. “In 2022, 507 fertility clinics reported data to the CDC; by the end of 2023, 163 (32.1%) of these 507 clinics were private equity affiliated, and we estimated that these 163 clinics performed 54.0% of all IVF cycles in the US in 2023.” Theresearchers noted that “Infertility affects 1 in 8 reproductive-aged women in the US. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the most effective infertility treatments. About 15 years ago, private equity firms began affiliating financially with US fertility clinics that perform IVF. Private equity health care investments typically involve acquiring clinics, increasing revenue and/or reducing costs via hands-on management, and then selling clinics for a profit after several years.” 

Private equity continued to invest in autism treatment, specifically ABA 

Following alarger pattern of private equity’s incursion into the industry, there were three transactions involving autism treatment companies in March. PESP recently published a report about the role of private equity in applied behavior analysis (ABA), the most widely recognized treatment for autism, titledPrivate equity’s autism therapy boom is straining Medicaid. Some of the key points of the report include:

• As screenings increase in the U.S., more children are being diagnosed with autism, leading toincreasing state spending on autism services.Private equity firms have positioned themselves to take advantage of growing Medicaid spending on autism services, specifically ABA.
• Private equity firms may be particularly interested in ABA providers because they are scalable through increasing the number of clients or client hours at each site, and through acquiring individual practices or sets of practices.
• Private equity’s incursion into the ABA industry represents some risk to patients, families, and providers through a focus on profit. Private equity-backed ABA providers may seek to reduce costs by simplifying treatment plans or reducing staff training and supervision. To increase income, ABA providers may pressure parents to agree to 30 or more hours a week of treatment, whether or not that is best for the child.
• Audits of Medicaid ABA bills have unearthed widespread billing and compliance issues, ranging from incomplete recordkeeping to billing for as many as 65 hours of therapy in one day and millions of dollars of overpayments to providers.