Re: The Biden ‘Strike Force’ Is Coming for You (March 6, 2024)
As a practicing Emergency Physician and President of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), I am disappointed at the immediate and misinformed response from this publication to the announcement that the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and Department of Health and Human Services will be investigating the impact of private equity in healthcare.
The Journal’s response even seems to imply that the acquisition of physician practices by private equity may help counterbalance the power of insurance companies and large hospitals. This may be accurate in regards to the executive ranks, but not in regards to the interests of patients, nurses, physicians, and other health care practitioners.
I testified during the FTC hearing on March 5 about my own personal experiences attempting to provide high-quality medical care under a private equity backed group. I suggest the Journal’s editors and everyone watch this commentary which is available on the FTC site. While I spoke of my own experiences, I know that many of the over 7,000 members of the AAEM have similar experiences.
Our Academy is not anti-competition, anti-capitalistic, or even pro-government. As mentioned in the editorial, we agree that a major cause of consolidation and the downward spiral of healthcare in this country is overregulation. Independent physician groups do not have the resources to comply with the increasingly complex requirements for CHS participation; hence they have sold out to hospitals, insurance companies, or PE investors.
However, regardless of the cause, a vast number of physicians no longer have control of their practice. This means that your doctor, the one examining and treating you, is effectively held hostage by a larger entity whose primary concern is not your health, but your wallet. I promise you that your doctors don’t want this, but they have been forced into this scenario.
The FTC/DOJ/HHS investigation is not more government overreach, it is one step to renew the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Another step is the pending Physician & Patient Safety Act which ensure physicians can advocate for their patients without fear of retribution from their minders.
Blackstone and KKR don’t care about your health. Your doctor does. The AAEM and many individual physicians are fighting to ensure that they still can.
Jonathan S. Jones, MD FAAEM
President
American Academy of Emergency Medicine