Private equity, consolidation divide aging services sector as multi-agency effort gets underway

Private equity, consolidation divide aging services sector as multi-agency effort gets underway
McKnight's Long-Term Care News; by Kimberly Marselas, Kimberly Bonvissuto; 6/10/24
While some aging services providers last week warned that more scrutiny of healthcare consolidation and rules that seek to limit it further could create “unintended consequences,” others encouraged three federal agencies to proceed with promised work on the issue. Private equity ownership is associated with increases in short-term mortality of Medicare patients, as well as declines in other quality measures of patient well-being, and reductions in staffing, services, supplies, or equipment, said LeadingAge, in comments authored by Jonathan Lips, vice president of Legal Affairs, citing research. They also acknowledged that another study using the government’s own data showed PE’s stake in the skilled nursing sector had declined to just 5% by 2022. Further research showed that slowdown persisted into 2023.