Private equity is billing patients to the bone

Nearly half of American adults say health care is difficult to afford, and about one-third have skipped or postponed care because of the cost, according to KFF polling. Even insured Americans are feeling the strain: The average monthly price of health insurance rose nearly 26% in a single year, the Urban Institute recently found.

Many forces drive those costs. One has operated largely outside public view: private equity.

Private equity-owned hospitals charged more, spent no less on patient care, and kept the difference.

Last month, my organization, Campaign for Accountability, released “Overbilled and Overtreated,” a report combining hospital financial data from the National Academy for State Health Policy with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s ownership tracker. We compared 71 hospitals acquired by private equity firms with 71 closely