Private Equity Investment As A Divining Rod For Market Failure: Policy Responses To Harmful Physician Practice Acquisitions 

Institutional private investment in health care, particularly in physician practices and staffing companies, has increased markedly in recent years, raising concerns that an influx of profit-driven entities into the sector might raise the cost or reduce the quality of patient care. Exemplifying these concerns, private equity-backed physician staffing companies and air ambulance operators helped drive the problem of out-of-network surprise medical billing, leading to increases in both in-network and out-of-network payments and exposing consumers to unexpected financial burdens.[1],[2],[3] Private equity investor groups subsequently poured millions of dollars into lobbying to block passage of a federal surprise medical billing law until Congress passed the No Surprises Act in late 2020