Private Equity in Healthcare – PESP’s May 2025 Roundup

Each month, PESP’s Healthcare Team will be putting together a roundup that shares 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

Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy: one year later

• May 6, 2025 marked the one-year anniversary of formerly Cerberus-owned Steward Health Care’s historic Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. In the year since, five former Steward hospitals across Massachusetts, Florida, and Ohio have closed and laid off approximately 2,400 workers. PESP looks back on the aftermath here, alongside additional coverage from Healthcare Dive.
• Meanwhile, Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings continue hitting road bumps: the company has staved off transition to a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy after reaching a settlement to secure a new loan to finance litigation against former insiders of the hospital chain. The settlement is opposed by creditors including Massachusetts state officials, who argued that “the settlement would give the company’s top-tier lenders the bulk of any litigation recoveries.”
• Mother Jones also reported on the Steward crisis, delving into the story of a new mother who bled to death in a Steward-owned hospital because the devices needed to stop her bleeding were repossessed after the company failed to pay its bills. An accompanying documentary by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines included commentary by PESP’s Eileen O’Grady.

Private equity investors in Pa. health care don’t prioritize patients, critics say – Spotlight PA

• Crozer Health, part of the Prospect Medical Holdings hospital system formerly owned by Leonard Green & Partners, closed its doors. In response, state and local officials are rallying together to address legislative solutions to ensure that Pennsylvania hospitals cannot again be raided by private equity firms.
• PESP’s Mary Bugbee was invited to address Delaware County Council and “delivered a scathing account of how private equity stripped hundreds of millions of dollars from the Crozer Health system—leaving behind closed emergency rooms, shuttered services, and a decimated healthcare infrastructure.”
• PESP’s Michael Fenne provided further context in an interview with Spotlight PA, where he spoke about his 2024 report analyzing private equity’s presence in Philadelphia.

Private equity’s failed bet on value-based care

• PESP’s new report, “Private Equity’s Failed Bet on Value-Based Care,” exposes the risks of private equity investments in value-based care (VBC) providers, detailing how debt-based financial strategies have led to bankruptcies, clinic closures, and healthcare consolidation, impacting vulnerable patient populations.
• Case studies explore the bankruptcies by Cano Health, CareMax, and Miami Beach Medical Group (dba Clinical Care Medical Centers), which all specialized in value-based primary care and served patient populations that were disproportionately dual eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.

Healthcare team’s latest blogs, reports, and media mentions

Blog Posts:

• Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy: one year later
• Reduced access at private equity-acquired ophthalmology practices
• PESP joins 16 organizations in urging the DOJ to prioritize stronger antitrust enforcement in healthcare
• Private Equity Health Care Acquisitions – April 2025

Reports:

• Private Equity’s Failed Bet on Value-Based Care

Other PESP healthcare news and mentions:

• PESP was cited in the Source Blog on California healthcare legislation surrounding private equity.
• McKnight’s cited PESP’s recent report on private equity in nursing homes.
• Disability Scoop and Stateline wrote features covering PESP’s recent report on private equity buying up services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• PESP’s research and reporting on Leonard Green & Partners’ raiding of Prospect Medical Holdings was cited in Spotlight PA, EMS1, Pennsylvania Capital Star, and World Wide Socialist Web.
• PESP’s 2023 report on private equity in the durable medical equipment industry was cited in Non-Profit Quarterly.
• Eileen O’Grady appeared on the healthcare-focused 43cc
• The PE Hospital Tracker was cited in Racket News and the Maine Monitor (which also referenced PESP’s PE Bankruptcy Tracker).