I didn't need another reason to hate private equity in healthcare

[jimbogumbo]

But here is a good one: https://www.vox.com/health-care/374820/emergency-rooms-private-equity-hospitals-profits-no-surprises

[Hegemony]

This makes me nauseated.

A for-profit firm just bought up the physician-started collection of medical practices in my town. They started by firing some of the doctors. Other doctors quit in disgust. Now the practices have notified their about 60% of their patients that they no longer have a doctor available and they should go elsewhere. Some of those patients were in cancer treatment and now have no oncologist. The town's other medical practices are full up with patients who have been let go from this one. Our university health insurance only pays "network provider" rates to certain medical groups, none of which are taking new patients. The town's social media is full of notices like "Which practices are taking new patients?" "So-and-so practice opened their waiting list and will take ten new people on the waiting list ... No, they're closed again now." And so on. What a huge %$#&@! So much for our famous medical system.

[kaysixteen]

Cannot your state intervene here?

[Parasaurolophus]

FWIW, something similar has happened here, but without private equity. It's just the result of a couple decades of underfunding, coupled with a couple decades of hospital closures outside urban settings (because they lose money--so the profit motive sneaks in despite the government funding).

It's gotten to the point where even in the major city I live in, many of the hospitals close their emergency rooms for weeks at a time. The whole of northern Ontario is staffed by something like 2.5 plastic surgeons instead of the recommended 10 (a parent is one of them, but won't be for much longer). Yet they just hired a second bariatric surgeon for the region--because doing so is more profitable. You'd think that wouldn't matter in a public system, and yet...

It's criminal, and I did not think I'd live to see it--and certainly not so soon. A lot of the discourse is that outsourcing to the private sector will help, but it won't (in fact, that's precisely part of the problem in some provinces).

[marshwiggle]

The tile of this topic is incredibly ironic; "equity" is exactly what is lacking, it would seem.

[Kron3007]

This makes me nauseated.

A for-profit firm just bought up the physician-started collection of medical practices in my town. They started by firing some of the doctors. Other doctors quit in disgust. Now the practices have notified their about 60% of their patients that they no longer have a doctor available and they should go elsewhere. Some of those patients were in cancer treatment and now have no oncologist. The town's other medical practices are full up with patients who have been let go from this one. Our university health insurance only pays "network provider" rates to certain medical groups, none of which are taking new patients. The town's social media is full of notices like "Which practices are taking new patients?" "So-and-so practice opened their waiting list and will take ten new people on the waiting list ... No, they're closed again now." And so on. What a huge %$#&@! So much for our famous medical system.

Famous medical system, or infamous?

[nebo113]

Long live free enterprise!!!

[ciao_yall]

Cannot your state intervene here?

And do what?

[kaysixteen]

Irrespective of the things that could and should be done to fundamentally alter our health care system, in the short term this state could employ a variety of carrot-and-stick methods to set things aright, up to and including declaring a public health emergency to prevent various location closures, if needed.

[dismalist]

Health and insurance are the most regulated sectors in the US economy, banking aside. There are things to bitch about, I believe, though my bitching would be different, but please, bitch to the right source, your government.