Practice management companies, many of them owned by private equity, are sweeping through U.S. healthcare, taking control of a large number of specialties, especially hospital-based ones such as emergency medicine and anesthesiology, Managed Healthcare Executive reports.
Another prime target are the physicians who staff the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Some of the NICU practice management companies include Millennium Medical Group in Beaumont, Texas, and Onsite Neonatal Partners, in Voorhees, New Jersey. One of the largest is Pediatrix Medical Group, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is a publicly traded company and reported $491 million in net revenue for the first quarter of 2023.
The practice management companies say they can bring economies of scale and special expertise to the nation’s NICUs, especially at smaller hospitals that perhaps couldn’t support a NICU on their own. Critics say the companies, particularly the ones owned by private equity firms, are focused on short-term gains, so they work to fatten profit margins by negotiating higher prices with payers, skimping on quality improvement and steering care to high-margin services. Read more.
