A study by physicians in the Journal of the American Medical Association describes a pattern of selling land, equipment and other resources after private equity acquires hospitals.

After private-equity firms acquire hospitals, the facilities’ assets and resources diminish significantly, leaving the facilities less equipped to care for patients, according to a new study by physician researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York’s Hunter College.

Published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the research highlights a pattern of asset stripping at health care facilities purchased by private-equity firms, its researchers said, and is the first study to analyze the activity nationwide.

“It’s a very striking finding and should change the way people think about private equity in hospitals,” said Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor of public health at Hunter, part of CUNY, and one of seven authors of the study. “The PE firms say, ‘We bring new capital into hospitals.’ It turns out that’s not quite true.”

  • T00l_shed@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    You mean groups that put profit over anything else, put profit over everything else! Fucking colour me shocked.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Anyone who works in healthcare can tell you this. In fact, private equity almost always makes things worse. In principal, the idea of buying up struggling businesses and getting them on their feet to sell them back for a profit is a pretty cool, normal idea. One could imagine how it’s a sort of second chance for mismanaged businesses or businesses that ran into a streak of bad luck. In practice, it’s just a subscription to vulture capital.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Way to go corporate news - holding the powerful responsible! Somehow. By eventually reporting common knowledge.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    My friends were talking about this the other night (one is an investment banker and the other is in healthcare consulting). I just bit my tongue for most of the conversation because the thought is horrifying. Neither of them mentioned what effects it would have on patient care but they were in agreement that it is a losing idea because most practices cannot see many efficiency gains to make it a worthwhile investment. So the strategy will fail but not before fucking up many people’s lives in the process.

  • snooggums@midwest.social
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    4 months ago

    I can’t think of any industry where private equity buyouts do anything other than run the business into the ground in search of short term profits, so this isn’t surprising.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    4 months ago
    NBC News Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [High] (Click to view Full Report)

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    Journal of the American Medical Association Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [High] (Click to view Full Report)

    Name: Journal of the American Medical Association Bias: Pro-Science
    Factual Reporting: Very High
    Country: United States of America
    Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/journal-of-the-american-medical-association-jama-bias/

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  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    As someone who was bought out by PE I am shocked, shocked I tell you. The constant budget cuts are such a productivity win!