PE now controls nearly 500 hospitals
Private equity ownership now extends to nearly 500 U.S. hospitals, amplifying investor influence over governance, staffing and compliance decisions — and creating demand for directors versed in clinical risk and regulatory oversight. (businessinsider.com)
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s updated tracker lists approximately 488 U.S. hospitals owned by private equity firms, representing about 8.5% of all private hospitals and 22.6% of proprietary for‑profit hospitals. (pestakeholder.org ) (pestakeholder.org) Texas contains the largest raw share with 108 PE‑owned hospitals, New Mexico has the highest share of its hospitals PE‑owned at 36.2%, and at least 27.7% of PE‑owned hospitals serve rural communities. (pestakeholder.org ) (pestakeholder.org) Since PESP’s prior update, 30 PE‑owned facilities saw their CMS star ratings decline and the count of PE‑owned hospitals rated 1‑star more than doubled from 10 to 23, a trend PESP highlighted with a case study of Lifepoint’s North Carolina hospitals. (pestakeholder.org ) (pestakeholder.org) Apollo Global Management is the single largest private‑equity hospital owner—PESP tracked roughly 224 hospitals under Apollo’s Lifepoint and ScionHealth platforms—while a small set of firms (Apollo, Equity Group Investments, One Equity Partners, GoldenTree/Davidson Kempner, Bain/Surgery Partners, Webster Equity) account for much of the footprint. (pestakeholder.org ) (pestakeholder.org) High‑leverage plays have shown up in real cases: PESP’s reporting on Steward Health Care documents extraction via sale‑leaseback real‑estate transactions (involving Medical Properties Trust) and Cerberus‑era financial moves that preceded bankruptcy, underscoring board exposure to real‑estate and refinancing risk. (pestakeholder.org ) (pestakeholder.org) California’s PE activity is material but smaller as a share of state hospitals—PE firms own roughly 6% of private hospitals in California and PE deals for California health providers totaled about $4.31 billion from 2019–2023—while national coverage data shows California among the states with the largest numbers of PE‑owned hospitals. (chcf.org ) (chcf.org) Major retained search firms running healthcare and board director mandates include WittKieffer, Spencer Stuart, Korn Ferry and Russell Reynolds, each listing healthcare board or provider searches as a core capability and appearing on industry vendor lists that hospitals and PE owners use for director recruitment. (wittkieffer.com ) (wittkieffer.com)
