Seeking greater transparency
In his letters to Apollo Global, MPT, and Lifepoint Health as well as Leonard Green & Partners and Prospect Medical Holdings, Grassley sought to understand the nature of mergers and acquisitions carried out by these companies, as well as the financial stability of Ottumwa and how related-party transactions contributed to an environment that was unable to identify the assaults by the nurse practitioner from the beginning.

Because they failed to answer his questions fully, the Senate Budget Committee is now demanding documentation on these transactions and more detailed answers about the operational practices of private equity firms in hospitals.

In the Biden-Harris inquiry, the Federal Trade Commission and the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services are seeking information from patients about their hospital experiences to compare the care quality before and after private equity acquisitions, in order to develop future regulations and enforceable laws for reducing anticompetitive practices.

Additionally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for the first time, has posted ownership data on federal qualified health centers and rural health clinics on data.cms.gov., allowing the public to view firm performance history to see how consolidation has affected patients, costs, and outcomes.

“I think that regulation is one way to address the concern about private equity investment in hospitals,” said Werner. "But I think there are other ways to address the concerns that many people have about private equity, which are politically more feasible and currently not being done. Creating greater transparency is one of those ways."

But transparency should not solely focus on how private equity-owned hospitals operate and the quality of care, prices, and patient outcomes they produce, she says. It should also account for why healthcare is a hotspot for these investment firms in the first place. In other words, given that these profit-driven businesses have been making increasingly substantial investments in healthcare over the last decade, critics, healthcare stakeholders, and the public should ask what financial opportunities and value are driving private equity firms to capitalize on the hospital industry.

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