Dive Brief:
- More than 500 U.S. hospitals are owned by private equity firms, representing 11.9% of all private hospitals, according to new data from the watchdog group Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
- PE firms also own around a third of all for-profit hospitals in the U.S., according to the data.
- A small group of investors own the bulk of PE-owned facilities, the PESP data added. Apollo Global Management, which owns Lifepoint Health and ScionHealth, owns 200 facilities in the U.S. Meanwhile, the firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe owns 124 facilities.
Dive Insight:
The tracker is based on CMS lists of all Medicare-enrolled hospitals, ranging from acute care to specialty hospitals. Of the 4,714 facilities included in the tracker, 561 are backed by PE, up from 488 in March 2025, per separate reporting from ZoomInvestors.
These findings raise questions about the role of PE in healthcare and how it affects costs and quality, PESP said.
Private equity firms generally aim to acquire businesses then sell them at a profit in a few years. Although one 2022 study showed that PE-affiliation didn't affect cost or quality for patients suffering myocardial infarction, other data tell a different story. Patients who get care at private equity-owned hospitals have higher fall and infection rates, according to another study published in 2023.
Meanwhile, PE ownership has been linked to bankruptcies of major hospital systems, like Steward Health Care and Prospect Medical Holdings, and closures of many others.
According to PESP, there's limited regulation of hospital ownership, making it hard to track which hospitals are owned by PE firms and the quality outcomes they yield. The watchdog group was only able to obtain ratings data for 17% of the PE-owned hospitals included in its tracker.
The bulk of facilities scored three stars or less. Facilities not owned by private equity got around four to five stars.
The tracker also flagged the types of hospitals PE firms tend to own. Nearly a quarter of PE-owned facilities are rehabilitation centers, while another 22.6% are long-term acute care hospitals and 23.4% are non-specialty hospitals. Just around 5% of PE-backed hospitals were either LTACH or non-specialty hospitals that included rehabilitation services, meaning nearly a third of facilities PE owns offer rehab in some capacity.
Finally, the tracker noted that 23% of PE-owned U.S. hospitals are owned through joint ventures with nonprofit health systems. This is notable because partnerships with nonprofits might allow PE-backed healthcare organizations to circumvent regulations designed to protect patient care.
According to PESP, there's historically been little intervention or investigation into PE's presence in healthcare.
However, the bankruptcies of Steward Health Care and Prospect Medical Holdings have prompted bipartisan action, including a 2025 Senate report outlining the impact of PE on Prospect and Lifepoint Health. Likewise, 11 state legislatures have passed legislation increasing oversight over PE deals in healthcare.
