Here are five key moves and studies since August about private equity and physicians:
1. Emergency physicians and consumer advocates across several states are seeking to ban private equity staffing practices.
The groups are urging for stronger enforcement of statutes in place in 33 states and the District of Columbia prohibiting the ownership of medical practices by corporations not under the ownership of licensed doctors.
2. Boynton Beach, Fla.-based multispecialty physician group Medical Specialists of the Palm Beaches secured a private equity investment.
The primary care group received the equity investment from healthcare-focused PE firm Ascend Capital Partners.
3. A total of 245 private equity transactions took place in the third quarter of 2022, a 12 percent increase year over year, according to a report from business intelligence company Irving Levin Associates.
4. More than half of physician medical group deals involved private equity investors each year from 2017 to 2021, according to VMG Health's Annual Healthcare M&A Report 2022.
5. While private equity investment can provide stable funding and allow practices to be innovative, it may be incompatible with physician practice ethics and sustainability, the American Medical Association wrote in a blog post.
The Aug. 1 post outlined a study in JAMA Internal Medicine that showed that physician management companies with private equity investment led to a rise in prices for anesthesia services for patients.