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PRIVATE EQUITY TAKEOVER OF HOSPITALS LED TO RISE IN MEDICARE
EMERGENCY PATIENT DEATHS, SAYS STUDY  
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Hannah Harris Green
October 14, 2025
The Guardian
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_ Private equity acquisition of hospitals have led to an increase in
deaths among emergency department patients receiving Medicare,
according to a recent study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
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Private Equity is Killing American Healthcare, Photo credit: New
Economic Thinking

 

It is the latest in a series of recent studies
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that private equity acquisition of health facilities leads to
worsening patient outcomes, including death.

“Each of them sort of comes up with the same result,” said Martin
Kenney, distinguished professor in the department of human ecology at
the University of California, Davis and author of Private Equity and
the Demise of the Local. “Private equity takes over things in the
medical field, quality goes down, prices go up,” Kenney explained.

Researchers found that private equity acquisition leads to
increased deaths in nursing homes
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increased post-operative complications for common inpatient surgeries
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even an increase in medical conditions acquired in the hospital, such
as bloodstream infections and injuries from falls
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Notably, the Department of Health and Human Services condemned
private equity’s role
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worsening patient outcomes toward the end of the Biden administration.

The latest study compared staff levels, wages and patient mortality in
49 private equity-acquired hospitals with 293 non-private equity
control hospitals – and found the private equity hospitals had
smaller staff numbers and smaller salaries, and that there were seven
more deaths per 10,000 patients in the private equity hospitals’
emergency departments. That is about 700 excess deaths among the
million emergency department visits the researchers investigated.

All of the patients whose records were included in the study were
Medicare recipients.

Zirui Song, associate professor of healthcare policy and medicine at
Harvard Medical School and one of the study’s authors, said that
cutting staff in emergency departments that serve Medicare patients
can be especially problematic.

“Some patients in emergency departments come in critically ill,
requiring all hands on deck to care for them. Trauma, respiratory
failure, sepsis, heart attack and stroke are a few examples of such
conditions often seen in emergency departments,” Song said.

Medicare patients also may require special attention, Song said, as
they are “on average older, with more health conditions, and are
more vulnerable relative to commercially insured patients”. The
study notes that private equity hospitals cut emergency department
salaries by 18.2% on average, and reduced the number of full-time
hospital employees by 11.6%.

Private equity-owned health facilities are also known for rejecting
higher-risk patients in order to keep down the cost of care
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similar is happening in emergency departments, according to Song’s
study. Private equity-owned hospitals transfer 12% more emergency
patients out to other hospitals, and those patients were more likely
to have multiple conditions.

“Sicker patients are transferred out to other hospitals, often
because the first hospital lacks the bandwidth, capacity or resources
to take care of them,” Song said, adding that this should mean that
the patients that remain in the original hospital get more attention
overall and have better outcomes.

Despite the increase in transfers at private equity-owned hospitals,
more patients were still dying, which Song says is “concerning”.

Song added that policymakers should consider the implications of cost
cutting in hospitals after reading this study.

“Some cuts in expenditures may improve the efficiency of hospital
operations, but other cuts may be harmful to patient care,” he said.

Policy changes that will actually hold private equity firms
accountable for declines in patient care are unlikely, according to
Kenney. As it stands now, “you don’t sue the private equity firm,
because the private equity firm is insulated,” he said.

In order to sue a private equity firm for the actions of its portfolio
health companies, plaintiffs must meet a very high bar
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show that the private equity firm was directly involved in the health
company’s day-to-day operations – even if that firm directly
profited from the cost cutting that resulted in harm. Instead, Kenney
says, plaintiffs must sue the hospital or other health company.

“And then, if worse comes to worse, they just go bankrupt
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leave the patient who’s been harmed, holding the bag.” Kenney
said.

In order for that to change, “Congress would have to pass a law
saying that a private equity firm is responsible for the activities of
the firm in its portfolio,” Kenney said, but he doesn’t see that
happening anytime soon.

“Look at who owns our Congress and the executive branch too,” he
said.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have billions of
dollars invested
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private equity firms. The secretary of treasury, Scott Bessent, also
is connected to private equity, and did not immediately divest from
those assets upon joining the executive branch
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While in other industries, consumers may be able to vote with their
wallets and choose to avoid companies that mistreat their customers,
when it comes to where to go to the emergency room, there isn’t
always a choice.

_[HANNAH HARRIS GREEN is an independent journalist and radio producer
based in Chicago. She covers science, healthcare and the war on
drugs.]_

* Healthcare
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* medical care
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* hospitals
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* Medicare
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* private equity
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* privatization
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* death
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* emergency care
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* Healthcare for Profit
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* For Profit Health Care
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