Private Equity in Healthcare – PESP’s December 2023 Roundup
January 5, 2024
Each month, PESP’s Healthcare Team will be putting together a roundup of the latest news stories related to private equity in healthcare and highlights the work that our team has published in the last month.
In the news
- Specifically, researchers found that private equity acquisition was associated with a 25.4% increase in hospital-acquired conditions, including falls and bloodstream infections.
- See coverage of the study in CNN, US News & World Report, and STAT News.
Senators launch bipartisan probe of private equity’s growing role in U.S. health care – NBC
- As part of the probe, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent letters to hospital chain Lifepoint and to its private equity owner, Apollo Global Management, as well as a letter to executives at Prospect Medical Holdings, Leonard Green and Partners, and Medical Properties Trust.
- PESP’s research was cited in all three letters.
Physicians say practice ownership by non-physician organizations worsened patients’ quality of care –Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI)
- PAI reports that “Almost 60% of physicians who practice as employees of hospitals and other corporate entities say that non-physician practice ownership results in a lower quality of patient care, according to a comprehensive survey by NORC at the University of Chicago.”
Steward Health Care to close Massachusetts hospital amid financial troubles – Healthcare Dive
- Stoughton, Massachusetts-based New England Sinai Acute Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation Hospital will close in the spring.
- Healthcare Dive reports that “The network has struggled with financial challenges for two years and has sold or closed hospitals, faced multiple lawsuits over unpaid vendor bills and settled a $4.7 million dollar False Claims Act settlement.”
- Steward was owned by Cerberus Capital from 2010 to 2020 and is facing a new set of allegations around False Claims Act violations that occurred during its period of ownership under Cerberus and continued after Cerberus exited the investment.
Healthcare companies face a wave of defaults next year – Bloomberg
- 12 of the 15 (80 percent) companies that Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded to the default category or is anticipating to do so in 2024 are private equity-owned: Air Methods, Elara Caring, Envision Health, LifeScan, Quorum Health, US Renal Care, Alvogen, Knight Health (dba Scion Health), OMERS Relief Acquisition (dba Gastro Health), Quantum Health, Thrive Pet Healthcare, and US Radiology Specialist.
Senators raise alarm about nation’s largest prison health care provider – CNN
- Lawmakers are looking into issues with Wellpath, which is owned by H.I.G. Capital
- See PESP’s report, “Private Equity Firms Rebrand Prison Healthcare Companies, But Care Issues Continue,” which was cited in the senators’ letter to Wellpath and H.I.G. Capital.
Healthcare team’s latest blogs, reports, and media mentions
Blog Posts:
- Private Equity Healthcare Acquisitions – November 2023
- Blackstone faces fraud settlement as DOJ alleges “culture of kickbacks”
- Private equity’s growing presence in senior living
- Senate Budget Committee launches investigation of PE hospital ownership
Published op-ed
- PESP’s Executive Director, Jim Baker, coauthored an op-ed with Community Catalyst that was published in the journal HealthAffairs, “Private Equity: The Metastasizing Disease Threatening Health Care.”
Media Mentions:
- KQED’s piece, “Whistleblowers Call Out California Group Home for Abuse Against Disabled Residents” cites and quotes Healthcare Director Eileen O’Grady’s research on Sevita Health
- CNN cites and quotes Eileen talking about the latest findings on hospital-acquired conditions in “Private equity ownership of hospitals made care riskier for patients, a new study finds.”
- PESP’s private equity-owned hospital tracker was cited in Becker’s Hospital Review, Bloomberg, National Law Review, UPI, and US News & World Report.
