Revealing the dark truth about the impact of predatory private equity
firms on American health care.
Won Gold from the Axiom Book Award in the Category of Business Ethics,
and the North American Book Award in the Catergory of Business Finance,
Finalist of the American Book Fest Best Book Social Change and Current
Events by the American Book Fest
Private equity (PE) firms pervade all aspects of our modern lives.
Unlike other corporations, which generally manufacture products or
provide services, they leverage considerable debt and other people's
money to buy and sell businesses with the sole aim of earning supersized
profits in the shortest time possible. With a voracious appetite and
trillions of dollars at its disposal, the private equity industry is now
buying everything from your opioid treatment center to that helicopter
that helps swoop you up from a car crash site. It may even control how
and when you can get your kidney dialysis.
In Ethically Challenged, Laura Katz Olson describes how PE firms are
gobbling up physician and dental practices; home care and hospice
agencies; substance abuse, eating disorder, and autism services; urgent
care facilities; and emergency medical transportation. With a sharp eye
on cost and quality of care, Olson investigates the PE industry's impact
on these essential services. She explains how PE firms pile up massive
debt on their investment targets and how they bleed these enterprises
with assorted fees and dividends for themselves. Throughout, she argues
that public pension funds, which provide the preponderance of equity for
PE buyouts, tend to ignore the pesky fact that their money may be
undermining the very health care system their workers and retirees rely
on.
Weaving together insights from interviews with business owners and
experts, newspaper articles, purchased data sets, and industry
publications, Olson offers a unique perspective and appreciation of the
significance of PE investments in health care. The first book to
comprehensively address private equity and health care, Ethically
Challenged raises the curtain on an industry notorious for its secrecy,
exposing the nefarious side of its maneuvers.
