Private equity spending in health care is exploding. And one place it’s evident is in hospitals that have supercharged their growth with robotic surgery, digital mammography and other tech tools, Politico reports.
New research in the journal Health Affairs suggests the flood of investment could be pushing hospitals to chase profits. The research showed investments in tech-driven services like cardiac surgery or catheterization rose in hospitals acquired by private equity firms — while delivery of some low-margin services fell.
Researchers from Duke and Rice universities found hospitals were 6.2 percent likelier to offer robotic surgery and 4.1 percent more likely to offer digital mammography after being acquired by private equity firms. Another trend: a shift to freestanding emergency departments from emergency services that are part of health systems — which the authors say could limit access to care in certain areas. Read more.
