The last 10 years have been a time of tremendous change in U.S. healthcare. One of the key drivers of this change has been growing investment from private equity into both larger healthcare companies and, more recently, into specialty medical practices, Fierce Healthcare reports.
Although this activity is reported on and sometimes scrutinized, less often is any focus given to the positive impact that this inflow of capital has had, both for doctors and patients.
According to public reports, private equity acquisitions of healthcare-related businesses have risen from an estimated annual deal value of $41.5 billion in 2010 to more than $200 billion in 2021. PE firms have pumped more than $750 billion into U.S. healthcare during the past 10 years and this money has had an impact. These funds have helped unlock lifesaving treatments, such as mRNA vaccinations, helped to level the playing field between doctors and payers and created thousands of new jobs by funding research and development in the life sciences and expanded care in medical practices.
Copious data on private equity’s healthcare investments has been compiled by the Washington, DC-based American Investment Council, and the venture capital/private equity research site, PitchBook. The numbers tell a compelling story. Since 2012 private equity funds both large and small have invested $280 billion in more than 1,800 life sciences and medical devices businesses. More than 250 deals in 2020 plowed private equity money into outpatient clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and urgent care centers. All this has expanded access to care, funded new technologies, and made healthcare businesses more efficient by eliminating duplicative administration costs. Read more.
