USA: Private equity takeover of hospitals led to rise in Medicare emergency patient deaths, says study

Private equity acquisition of hospitals have led to an increase in deaths among emergency department patients receiving Medicare, according to a recent study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

It is the latest in a series of recent studies illustrating that private equity acquisition of health facilities leads to worsening patient outcomes, including death.

“Each of them sort of comes up with the same result,” said Martin Kenney, distinguished professor in the department of human ecology at the University of California, Davis and author of Private Equity and the Demise of the Local. “Private equity takes over things in the medical field, quality goes down, prices go up,” Kenney explained.

Researchers found that private equity acquisition leads to increased deaths in nursing homes, increased post-operative complications for common inpatient surgeries and even an increase in medical conditions acquired in the hospital, such as bloodstream infections and injuries from falls.

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Source: The Guardian, 14 October 2025