Peters Seeks Information About Private Equity Run Emergency Departments and Impact on Patient Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is seeking information about private equity firms’ involvement in hospital emergency departments and potential impacts on patient care. In letters to private equity firms and physician staffing companies, Peters requested information about business operations, staffing decisions, and patient care and safety at several emergency departments across the country. Peters’ information requests follow interviews his office has conducted with more than 40 emergency medicine physicians across the country who have raised significant concerns about patient care at private equity-owned physician staffing companies and private equity-owned hospitals, as well as their ability to provide care in the event of a major emergency, such as a mass casualty event, terrorist attack or future pandemic. 

“I am concerned that our nation’s largest emergency medicine staffing companies may be engaging in cost-saving measures at the expense of patient safety and care, which could put our nation’s emergency preparedness at risk,” said Senator Peters.  “I am pressing these companies and their private equity owners for needed transparency so that we better understand how their business practices could be affecting patient safety, quality care, and physicians’ abilities to exercise independent judgment in providing patient care.” 

Publicly available information suggests that private equity-owned physician staffing groups operate nearly one-third of all emergency departments across the country. Currently, more than a quarter of hospitals that serve rural populations throughout the United States are owned by private equity firms. Financial instability and bankruptcies by private equity-owned companies and hospitals have had devastating impacts on communities and patient care.    

To view the letter to Apollo Global Management and US Acute Care Solutions, click here.  

To view the letter to Apollo Global Management and Lifepoint Health, click here. 

To view the letter to Blackstone and TeamHealth, click here. 

To view the letter to KKR & Co. Inc, and Envision, click here. 

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