An article from the New York Times highlights the dangers of private equity firms buying hospitals in the US, the land of private medicine. (It is behind a pay wall but you can get the idea from this summary and the links.)

A new study shows an increase in the rate of inpatient complications, including infections and falls, though patients were no more likely to die.

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.

Over the last two decades, private equity firms have become major players in health care, purchasing not just hospitals but also a growing number of nursing homes, physician practices and home health care companies. The firms pool money from institutional investors and individuals to form investment funds, often buying hospitals and other entities through high levels of debt, with an eye to reselling them in a few years. A separate recent study suggested the firms were consolidating physician groups in certain local markets, potentially leading to higher prices.

So far, these firms own a small share of hospitals in the United States, though the numbers are hard to measure because the transactions are not always public.

Several media reports have shown that some of the acquired hospitals have been forced to close because of financial distress, and some have come under regulatory scrutiny for quality problems. But such examples are not necessarily typical.