The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report that criticizes how private equity and decreased competition is creating harmful consequences for patients seeking healthcare. It’s even increasing patient deaths.

The report found multiple studies have demonstrated hospital system-led acquisitions and mergers are associated with higher prices for services charged to insurers and patients (between 6% and 65% higher) and can increase significantly for neighboring hospitals as well. Several studies show no improvement in quality of care after consolidation, even negative impacts – such as increased risk of death in heart attack patients, longer travel times, and cutting of key services.

Private equity acquisitions in particular have been found to have patient-harming cost cutting measures such as lower staffing levels and hiring inadequately credentialed staff, while simultaneously inducing demand and volume for unnecessary tests and procedures, leading to physician burnout and less time for patients with their physicians.

The Guardian covers how these problems resulted from “aggressive staffing cuts and hiring inadequately credentialed staff”.

Direct quotes from respondents to the HHS research include concerned physicians:

A Dermatologist: “I was forced to see 45 patients daily with 1 medical assistant. This was unsafe. I am sure documentation was missed. I was routinely told by patients they called with problems and never heard back…I knew that I was going to be the one to go down when something bad happened and I left because I refused to take that fall.”

An Emergency Medicine physician: “They are intentionally understaffing emergency departments as a driver of profit. Patient care is being dangerously impacted, as the physicians are being asked to see an unsafe number of patients because they do not want to staff the emergency departments appropriately.”

An Emergency Medicine physician “staffing policies that were extremely dangerous to the patients with overstaffing of APPs and understaffing of physicians. Patients were hurt and likely killed because of these staffing policies by these contract management groups.”