Private Equity in Health Care Shown to Harm Patients, Degrade Care and Drive Hospital Closures (January 7, 2025)
www.budget.senate.gov

... "The Ottumwa community has personally felt the impact of private equity on its health care system. Under private equity ownership, wait times at Ottumwa Regional Health Center have gone up as patient experience has gone down. The diminishing quality of care, service availability and care capacity at the hospital is forcing Ottumwa residents to travel significant distances in order to receive appropriate treatment. Iowans deserve better," Grassley said. "A dependable health care system is essential to the vitality of a community. As always, sunshine is the best disinfectant. This report is a step toward ensuring accountability, so that hospitals' financial structures can best serve patients' medical needs."

"Private equity has infected our health care system, putting patients, communities, and providers at risk," Whitehouse said. "As our investigation revealed, these financial entities are putting their own profits over patients, leading to health and safety violations, chronic understaffing, and hospital closures. Take private equity firm Leonard Green and hospital operator Prospect Medical Holdings: documents we obtained show they spent board meetings discussing profit maximization tactics -- cost cutting, increasing patient volume, and managing labor expenses -- with little to no discussion of patient outcomes or quality of care at their hospitals.

And while Prospect Medical Holdings paid out $645 million in dividends and preferred stock redemption to its investors -- $424 million of which went to Leonard Green shareholders -- it took out hundreds of millions in loans that it eventually defaulted on.

Private equity investors have pocketed millions while driving hospitals into the ground and then selling them off, leaving towns and communities to pick up the pieces." ...

PDF of the report is here:
www.grassley.senate.gov

Prospect Medical Holdings, owner of three CT hospitals, files for bankruptcy (January 12, 2024)
www.wshu.org

... Prospect Medical Holdings, the company that owns three struggling Connecticut hospitals, has filed for bankruptcy.

The California-based company has been trying to sell Waterbury, Rockville General and Manchester Memorial Hospitals to Yale New Haven Hospital since 2022.

That deal was thrown into turmoil after a 2023 cyber attack at Prospect severely hurt the hospital system, leaving it cash-stripped. YNH has argued that the hospitals are not worth what they were when the terms of the deal were negotiated.

They've asked the state for financial support, claiming they would spend more than originally planned on needed upgrades. Governor Ned Lamont (D) has been hesitant to support the deal with state funding.

"Prospect's decision to file for bankruptcy is much larger than just the state of Connecticut " this is a national matter and of grave concern to many hospitals around the country," Yale New Haven Health spokesperson Dana Marnane said. "Yale New Haven Health raised the alarm about this inevitability in the lawsuit we filed last year, recognizing Prospect's lack of investment and mismanagement of the Connecticut Prospect hospitals. ...

Medical Debt Could Get You Sued (2020)
www.nbcconnecticut.com

... Quader found out her health insurance provider rejected the claim because it was filed more than 90 days after treatment.

What happened to Quader is not unusual. Data analyzed by researchers at the UCONN Health Disparities Institute show Danbury Hospital has filed suits against thousands of its patients. ...

Leon Bridges - Peaceful Place (2024)
www.youtube.com