Anonymous #3 5w

The conflict of interest thing kind of made sense at the time, but boyyyyyy would I take a COI over private equity atp

15

Anonymous #3 5w

Fun fact: the insurance system has created an environment which incentivized private equity to needlessly prolong stays, treating their facilities like a needlessly expensive hotel. (This is an entirely separate issue from underproviding care. Less care + more time stayed = more free money for private equity)

7

Anonymous #5 5w

Can you explain? I find it hard to believe insurance incentivizes stays longer than necessary. They don’t want to pay for it and it sometimes counts against the doctor’s metrics. And if the patient thinks they’re fine they can usually do an AMA discharge

1

Anonymous #2 5w

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/deaths-rose-emergency-rooms-after-hospitals-were-acquired-private-equity-firms Only studied Medicare patients though (private insurance data is probably harder to get), so just keep in mind that it’s technically not the best idea to generalize these findings outside of people 65+. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this trend holds for other populations

1

Anonymous #1 5w

Adjusted. The control had 52.4 per 10k visits while PE hospitals had 59.4 after acquisition

1

Anonymous #4 5w

Absolutely, and the case itself is kinda insane. Rick Scott (yes the Florida Senator) was CEO of Columbia/HCA in the 80s and 90s. According to NIH, HCA admitted to inflating bills to the government, exaggerating diagnoses for increased Medicare reimbursement, and more. Part of what they did included doing the same thing to insurance providers, but they’d also partner with smaller hospitals and send patients there for longer for the sake of “recovery”

2

Anonymous #4 5w

In the end, they only ended up being found guilty of the federal crimes. Republican Senator Rick Scott pleaded the 5th over 75 times (it’s ALWAYS the biggest abusers of the system who want to get rid of it), HCA paid over 2 Billion in fines, Scott kept his $350 million in HCA stock, and the brother of Tennessee Republican Senator Bill First, Thomas First, became the new CEO (which led to an insider trading scandal between the two lmao)

1

Anonymous #4 5w

The short and sweet answer is that it all ties back to kickbacks, or rewarding doctors for referrals (basically bribery)

1