Private Equity Healthcare Deals: 2025 in Review

In 2025, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) tracked 1,029 private equity-backed healthcare deals in the U.S., including 151 leveraged buyouts, 664 add-on acquisitions, and 214 growth investments. The busiest subsectors were Health IT, dental care, and outpatient care. The report highlights a growing trend of private equity firms using joint ventures with nonprofit health systems to expand market access and evade antitrust scrutiny. It also notes significant expansion into pharmaceutical services, specifically clinical trial sites and institutional review boards, and home health/hospice care, where debt-driven models may divert Medicaid funds from patient care.

• PESP tracked a total of 1,029 private equity-backed healthcare deals in 2025, comprising 151 leveraged buyouts, 664 add-on acquisitions, and 214 growth investments involving 420 platform companies and 708 investment firms.
• Health IT was the most active healthcare category tracked by PESP in 2025 with 151 deals, followed by dental care (149 deals) and outpatient care (148 deals).
• Private equity firms are increasingly utilizing joint ventures with nonprofit health systems to gain access to trusted brands and geographic markets, a strategy that may also help them avoid antitrust scrutiny.
• There is significant private equity expansion into pharmaceutical services, particularly clinical trial sites and institutional review boards (IRBs), raising concerns about conflicts of interest and the integrity of ethical reviews.
• In the home health and hospice sector, the private equity model of high debt and short-term returns may lead to cost-cutting and the diversion of Medicaid funds away from patient care.
• The dental care sector has seen high activity, with 95% of the 149 deals tracked in 2025 being add-on acquisitions; some reports suggest this profit-driven model contributes to the unnecessary extraction of healthy teeth for implants.

APA

Private Equity Stakeholder Project (2026). Private Equity Healthcare Deals: 2025 in Review. https://pestakeholder.org/reports/pe-healthcare-deals-2025-in-review/

Chicago

Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Private Equity Healthcare Deals: 2025 in Review. 2026. https://pestakeholder.org/reports/pe-healthcare-deals-2025-in-review/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |title=Private Equity Healthcare Deals: 2025 in Review |date=11 February 2026 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/reports/pe-healthcare-deals-2025-in-review/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{privateequitystakeholderproject2026private, author = {{Private Equity Stakeholder Project}}, title = {{Private Equity Healthcare Deals: 2025 in Review}}, institution = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/reports/pe-healthcare-deals-2025-in-review/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }