Comment in Support of HB5000 (Health Facilities Planning.)

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project supports Illinois HB5000, arguing that private equity's expansion into healthcare—through leveraged buyouts, roll-ups, and joint ventures—often leads to higher prices, increased debt, and reduced quality of care. The document details specific financial tactics like sale-leasebacks and dividend recapitalizations, and highlights the growth of private equity in ambulatory surgery centers and physician practice management, urging regulators to increase oversight to protect patient access and cost.

• Private equity has invested more than $1 trillion in the US healthcare sector over the last ten years, impacting diverse areas including hospitals, emergency medicine, dentistry, and behavioral health.
• In 2025, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracked 1,029 private equity-backed healthcare deals in the United States, comprising 151 leveraged buyouts, 664 add-on acquisitions, and 214 growth investments.
• Private equity investment in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) has been linked to significant price increases; a 2023 study indicated that PE-owned ASCs charge nearly 50% more per case within four to five years without increasing surgical volume.
• Private equity firms utilize specific financial strategies that can destabilize healthcare providers, including leveraged buyouts (where 60-90% of funding is debt), sale-leasebacks of real estate, and dividend recapitalizations that load providers with debt to pay investors.
• The use of managed services organizations (MSOs) and physician practice management corporations (PPMs) allows unlicensed investors to influence clinical decision-making, staffing, and service mix without formal ownership.
• Private equity firms increasingly use joint ventures with nonprofit health systems to expand their market reach and potentially avoid antitrust scrutiny.
• The document identifies specific examples of joint ventures, such as Lifepoint Health (owned by Apollo Global Management) having at least 78 hospitals involving 26 health systems under JV arrangements as of November 2024, and Compassus Health partnering with nonprofit systems OhioHealth and Providence Health.

APA

Private Equity Stakeholder Project (2026). Comment in Support of HB5000 (Health Facilities Planning.). https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IL_PESP-Written-Testimony_support_H5000-4.29.26.pdf

Chicago

Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Comment in Support of HB5000 (Health Facilities Planning.). 2026. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IL_PESP-Written-Testimony_support_H5000-4.29.26.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |title=Comment in Support of HB5000 (Health Facilities Planning.) |date=29 April 2026 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IL_PESP-Written-Testimony_support_H5000-4.29.26.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{privateequitystakeholderproject2026comment, author = {{Private Equity Stakeholder Project}}, title = {{Comment in Support of HB5000 (Health Facilities Planning.)}}, publisher = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IL_PESP-Written-Testimony_support_H5000-4.29.26.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }