Private Medicine Should Trump Private Equity.

• Author: Singleton, Marilyn M.
• Position: MEDICAL FINANCES

Over the last couple of years, we have been living in a frenzied political atmosphere of inflation worries, unaddressed crime, COVID-19, monkeypox, and a variety of social issues. These are distractions from thinking about the big picture: the march toward government and corporate control over our lives, including absorbing medical practice into the statist-corporate complex.

While many say that COVID-19 brought out the flaws in public health, it also has highlighted the joys and advantages of private practice medicine. People who are disappointed in the oft-times unscientific public health recommendations and mandates have benefited from seeking advice from private practitioners. However, we are on the road to losing private practice, the heart of good medicine.

Until the last 10 or 15 years, most hospitals were owned either by mainly religious nonprofit entities or by states and cities, with ties to medical schools. Private equity ventures have quadrupled over the last 10 years, and have spent approximately $750,000,-000,000 during that time period. As Bain Capital put it, 2021 was a "banner year" fueled by an aging population and more chronic illnesses. Private equity firms now control a large swath of hospitals, physician practices, ERs, nursing homes, and hospice centers.

For years, health policy specialists have been warning about the dangers of private equity and consolidation in medical services. The focus on return on investment by private equity owners puts profits over patients. Studies in hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis centers have found private equity ownership is associated not only with higher prices, but a decrease in quality of care.

Concurrently, consolidation has been on a roll. Five for-profit insurers now control 43% of the market; more than 60% of community hospitals belong to a health system, and less than half of physicians own part of a private practice. A large California study found that consolidation of the hospital, physician, and insurance markets increased prices of services as well as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act premiums. Broader research shows that mergers increase the average price of hospital services by six percent to 18%. One industry group places some of the blame on the increase in government programs, with the 55% increase in...