Research into the role of private equity in healthcare is becoming increasingly intensive

Influential U.S. senators are the latest to launch investigations into private equity’s expanding role in owning and operating everything from hospitals and health care systems to doctor’s offices and clinics.

In a letter from last week Speaking to Ascension Illinois, a nonprofit operator of 10 hospitals in the Chicago area, Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to know how private equity benefits patients and quality of care. affects health care. and outcomes.

Grassley’s investigation comes amid increasing investigations by congressional committees, including one by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Pension Securitywhich “has targeted the hundreds of billions that private equity has spent buying up doctors’ offices, hospitals, labs and nursing homes across the country,” the Washington Post reported last month.

Grassley and Markey’s investigations come less than three months after the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services launched a ‘cross-government investigation’ in March about (the) impact of corporate greed in healthcare.â€

In Grassley’s research, that is making headlines in Chicago, The senator is investigating Ascension’s decision to outsource hospital staff to a for-profit company known as SCP Health, which is backed by a Canadian-funded staffing agency. This is stated in the senator’s letter to Ascension Illinois.

“My office has received allegations that the outsourcing of personnel includes medical directors, physicians, nurses and physician assistants,” Grassley’s letter said regarding positions directly employed by Ascension.

“Whistleblowers have come to my office regarding proposed changes to staffing and procedures if SCP Health takes control and the hospital function is outsourced,” Grassley’s letter said.

“If implemented, these models could impact the quality of care for patients, increase healthcare providers’ workloads to unsustainable levels and raise questions about whether there are proper internal controls in place to protect patient information and ensure the accuracy of billing.” Grassley’s letter added. “I am concerned that if staffing plans are implemented as directed to my office, hospital staff would be carrying a very high patient burden. For example, based on the data provided to my office, SCP models would change the average number of patients hospital physicians see per day from between 16 and 19 to between 22 and 30.â€

For its part, Ascension Illinois confirmed Friday that it has received Grassley’s letter and is working with the senator’s office.

“Delivering compassionate and timely care to the patients we serve is at the heart of everything we do,” an Ascension Illinois spokesperson said. “On June 1, 2024, SCP Health, a clinical provider of emergency medicine, hospital medicine and critical care, began providing hospital care to our acute care hospitals, utilizing the majority of providers currently serving these facilities are. We have received Senator Grassley’s letter and look forward to sharing information about how our agreement with SCP Health will serve our patients, our community and our mission.”

It remains unclear how the senators’ investigation will proceed, but Markey’s office has already developed legislation called the “Health Over Wealth Act” that would impact private equity’s future involvement in healthcare if it becomes law .

“The purpose of my health over wealth law is to protect patients and healthcare providers by requiring the private equity firm to set aside funding to protect access to care, eliminating tax breaks that encourage companies to strip hospital assets, and giving a greater voice to employees and patients to review and block seats that would impact patient care, access or safety,” Markey told the Washington Post in an interview.