“In the case of emergency care, “private equity doesn’t pay the hospital rent, they don’t hire the nurses, they don’t pay the electric bills, they don’t provide any of the equipment,” says Robert McNamara, chair of the emergency medicine department at Temple University in Philadelphia.”
Private equity owned nearly 9% of ER doctor groups in 2009 and 22% by 2019. The firms buy only the doctors, then cut doctor hours and dock pay when a patient waits more than 25 minutes. One study found patient costs rose more than 80% after a corporate takeover. ER burnout sits at 63%. A heart attack is a non-shoppable service, and that is exactly what they bought.