The Public Chafed the Last Time the GOP Tried to Cut Medicaid
Will This Time be Different? Past Health Bills Hold Clues
Blog Post
Chart of the Day: What’s All This Brouhaha? Today’s Private Equity Purchases of Physician Practices Look Much Like the Past
Penn LDI Study Provides Historical Analysis and Insight for the Future
Print:
The growth of private equity investment in health care is facing sharp scrutiny from investors, regulators, and the public. Some view private equity as a key to transforming the U.S. health system. Others raise concerns that profits for corporate investors will be at the expense of patients’ health, workers’ safety, and affordability. LDI Senior Fellows Mark V. Pauly and Lawton Robert Burns argue that we have seen this movie before. Looking at past private equity purchases will help us understand the future.
In their study, published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, they identify two historical waves of private equity investment in physician practices—in the 1990s and from the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to the present. They then assess the similarities between the investment goals of each wave—shown in the table above. Pauly and Burns say that strategies across private equity investment have largely stayed consistent. However, the investigators say there’s “less public information on firm performance” today. So, they argue, the current “brouhaha” should be tempered by past experience.
The study, “Equity Investment in Physician Practices: What’s All This Brouhaha?,” was published on February 7, 2024 in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. Authors include Mark V. Pauly and Lawton Robert Burns.
Author
Miles Meline, MBE
Policy Coordinator
More on Health Care Access & Coverage
Research Memo: Loss of Subsidized Drug Coverage and Mortality Following Medicaid Disenrollment: Translating our Findings and Implications for Medicaid Policy
Supplement to Response to Request for Technical Assistance
Medicare’s New Drug Spending Cap Will Likely Help Few Seniors
Many With High Drug Costs Have Supplemental Coverage and Won’t Reach the $2,000 Out-of-Pocket Cap, a New LDI Study Finds
How State Medicaid Choices Eased Children’s Coverage Loss After COVID-19
New Research Shows That Continuous Eligibility and Streamlined CHIP Structures Helped Protect Kids During the “Unwinding”
Medicaid Cuts Will Imperil Many Sick Recipients
Those on Medicaid and Medicare Will Die at Higher Rates If They Lose Low-Cost Drug Coverage, New LDI Study Shows
Six Policy Actions to Help Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees Get Better Care
LDI Fellows Outline a Path Forward Based on Lessons From the Last Decade