A new study reveals the states where private equity has the most influence on housing, health care, jobs and pensions
A new study by Private Equity Stakeholder Project identifies the states where private-equity firms have the most influence over health care, housing, jobs and pensions.
For many years, Conemaugh Health System, a hospital chain in west central Pennsylvania, was a nonprofit entity, serving patients in the small communities of Johnstown, Hastings, Meyersdale and Roaring Spring. Today, it is a for-profit system owned in part by Apollo Global Management, one of the largest private-equity firms in the United States.
Since that ownership change in 2018, involving a hospital chain known as LifePoint Health, care at the health system has declined, three patients say. One is Paul Ricci, 53, who works at group homes for the intellectually disabled and in his spare time edits the Johnstown-based Allegheny Independent Media, “a non-fluff website for news and analysis of the Allegheny Region of Pennsylvania,” as he calls it. Recently, he said, he and his father have experienced overnight waits in the emergency department and have had trouble getting through to someone who can answer billing questions.
That a big, New York City-based private-equity firm had stepped in at Conemaugh wasn’t well-known when it happened, he told NBC News. “The same people were there at the hospital,” he said. “I didn’t know the care would be different.”
Like many U.S. consumers, Ricci is beginning to learn about the impact that private-equity firms like Apollo can have on health care. Over the past decade, these firms have spent $1 trillion taking over health care companies across the nation, typically loading them with debt and hoping to sell them at a gain in three to five years. Critics say the drive to profit from the acquisitions of nursing homes, hospitals, physician practices and health care staffing companies conflicts with diligent patient care, and the firms and their purchases are coming under heightened scrutiny from legislators, anti-trust enforcers and patients.LifePoint Health, for example, is one of the subjects of two Senate inquiries focused on whether financial deals like the company's may be harming patients. Apollo and LifePoint have said they welcome the scrutiny. Conemaugh did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In recent years, private-equity firms have taken over broad swaths of the nation’s economy, extending well beyond health care. These purchases have involved supermarkets, child care, senior living centers, fast food operations, rental housing and pet care providers. Consumers are often unaware that private-equity firms own the companies they patronize because the firms don’t put their names on the nursing homes, hospitals, veterinary practices and apartment buildings they own.
Rating: 5