From “Serious Medical Errors Rose After Private Equity Firms Bought Hospitals,” reported by the NYT:

The study, published in JAMA on Tuesday, found that, in the three years after a private equity fund bought a hospital, adverse events including surgical infections and bed sores rose by 25 percent among Medicare patients when compared with similar hospitals that were not bought by such investors. The researchers reported a nearly 38 percent increase in central line infections, a dangerous kind of infection that medical authorities say should never happen, and a 27 percent increase in falls by patients while staying in the hospital.

“We were not surprised there was a signal,” said Dr. Sneha Kannan, a health care researcher and physician at the division of pulmonary and critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was the paper’s lead author. “I will say we were surprised at how strong it was.”

// 12.26.23

People like to operate under the belief that services like anesthesia, radiology, and pathology are totally interchangeable commodities. We do the work but don’t generate it, and patients generally don’t get to pick.

But in the real world, labor isn’t as cog-like as you might think, and culture matters (yes, even in our dysfunctional healthcare system).

Here, enjoy this story of a failed private equity anesthesia takeover.

// 12.12.23

Great reporting by Cezary Podkul in ProPublica (and amazing perseverance by Dr. Shteynshlyuger):

A powerful lobbyist convinced a federal agency that doctors can be forced to pay fees on money that health insurers owe them. Big companies rake in profits while doctors are saddled with yet another cost in a burdensome health care system.

// 08.16.23