Private equity firms have reportedly invested more than $750 billion in U.S. health care in the last 10 years alone. While some of this investment has been in large systems or ancillary services, a significant amount has been targeted toward physician practices. With an increase in private equity funding and ownership comes a corresponding uptick in attention from federal regulators, reports Medical Economics.
In his Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, President Biden emphasized that his administration would take “decisive action to reduce the trend of corporate consolidation” and “increase competition.”
Although the federal government’s interest in health care consolidation is not new, both the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission — the two federal agencies primarily responsible for enforcing the U.S. antitrust laws — have publicly pronounced that private equity investment and acquisitions are a top priority for the agencies and are setting their sights on health care. Read more.
