The loopholes PE built to buy physicians are starting to crack (Becker’s Healthcare)

Private equity-backed healthcare platforms are facing increasing scrutiny over the corporate structures used to acquire and manage physician practices. The article examines how regulators are pursuing three different enforcement theories: anti-kickback violations involving MSO compensation and referrals, corporate-practice-of-medicine violations involving excessive MSO control over physician practices, and antitrust enforcement targeting serial acquisitions that can create market power. Recent cases involving Campus Eye, Carbon Health, Center for Vein Restoration and U.S. Anesthesia Partners illustrate how regulators are increasingly looking beyond individual transactions to examine who controls the practice, who controls the economics, and whether repeated acquisitions have consolidated a market.