Over the past decade, private equity and venture capital firms have ramped up their investment in health care, buying up everything from physician practices and health technology start-ups to addiction treatment facilities. 

While there is no denying that private capital has brought innovation to the health sector, some investors are simply maximizing short-term profits by pushing up prices, which in turn is hurting consumers.

In their new essay for Harvard Business Review, the Commonwealth Fund’s Lovisa Gustafsson, Shanoor Seervai, and David Blumenthal, M.D., argue that investors will benefit most if they add true value to our health system. “Unlike many other markets, health care is both highly regulated and highly sensitive to the reality or appearance of victimizing the sick and vulnerable,” they write. “Consumer outrage leads quickly to government intervention.”