The National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) submits the following comments in response to the Request for Information on Consolidation in Health Care issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). We appreciate that the DOJ, HHS, and FTC are engaging in an extensive examination of the issues raised by health care consolidation.
We join coalition comments authored by Americans for Financial Reform, Community Catalyst, and Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Additionally, we write separately here to highlight three issues related to private equity and health care:
- Private equity in carceral healthcare systems;
- Private equity in long-term and nursing home care; and
- Private equity ownership of emergency department staffing companies and access to hospital financial assistance.