Physicians’ Perspectives Regarding Private Equity Transactions in Outpatient Health Care—A Scoping Review and Qualitative Analysis

Tim N. Nolte, Felix Miedaner and Sandra Sülz ()
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Tim N. Nolte: Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Postbus 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Felix Miedaner: Faculty of Health and Health Care Sciences, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Rothenfelder Str. 10, 38440 Wolfsburg, Germany
Sandra Sülz: Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Postbus 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-13

Abstract: Private equity (PE) investments in health care have increased drastically over the last decade, and the profit interests of these companies have triggered a vivid discussion among medical professions. However, what are the key underlying perceptions among physicians regarding this trend? Unravelling the argumentative structure of this debate is the purpose of this paper. With physicians being a major stakeholder group in the outpatient health care setting, this paper explores physicians’ perspectives regarding increasing PE activities. We systematically searched, selected, and synthesized existing knowledge in a scoping review and complemented the findings through 14 semi-structured interviews with physicians working in the outpatient health care sector in Germany. The results outline a complex network of arguments, concerns, and fears whereby the first intuitive perception of physicians is of critical nature. Arguments cluster around central perceptions of how PE involvement affects the individual autonomy of physicians in their daily work and decision-making, the impact on quality of care, work-life balance considerations, PE investment strategies, lack of medical vs. managerial expertise, and taxation issues. The high number of opinion papers among the literature underlines the actuality of the topic and emphasizes the need for empirical research.

Keywords: private equity; outpatient health care; physician (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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