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FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
71–80 of 299 posts
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a number of these where there's a desire to make it appear there is competition, but actually all are owned by the same conglomerate. I would be 0% surprised if similar things haven't been done or tried in optometry, dentists, etc.
BlackStone Vangauard Etc. There have been COUNTLESS videos about the above and how much they own. These are the monopolies we should be going after.
What? They're not monopolies.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#73Quoted post unavailable.
fwiw, I love the FTC and vets, but this does not seem like the top news of today in hackernews world.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#74Interesting. Doesn't Mars own a ton of specialty vet clinics too? (E.g. the VCA chain)
Not many of their locations are speciality.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
The flaw in this idea is that there's no good way to introduce more competition to the market. The market is only going to continue to optimize for profit. The reason pricing isn't available is because that's negotiated between the provider and the insurance companies. Since most patients are using insurance, hospitals have to negotiate with some of the major insurance providers. Insurance companies do not want hospi…
> The market settled on this extremely convoluted system, which makes no sense to outsiders, specifically because it's so profitable
Which exact parties are extracting excess profits?
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a number of these where there's a desire to make it appear there is competition, but actually all are owned by the same conglomerate. I would be 0% surprised if similar things haven't been done or tried in optometry, dentists, etc.
For the last 5-10 years one of the most popular strategies for mid-sized PE firms has been the dental clinic roll up.
Funny you should say that: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-private-equ...
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
My partner works in this industry and in fact has friends that are affected by this merger. While the FTC can and does have the ability to do many things simultaneously, the current situation in the vet industry is dire . Corporate vets are more profitable (through price-gouging), have a virtual stranglehold on increasingly limited labor pools, and are pretty much the only ones that can afford to invest in specialty…
Could you explain this more? If the corp vets are price gouging, why are consumers choosing them over the smaller vets?
Clinics are facing severe labor shortages. It doesn't matter what the demand is, because they have a limited supply of veterinary care to give. My partner's clinic recently became corporate-owned because they simply could not hire new vets to be able to take new clients. Any days off any vet took had to be covered by one of the others on their "weekend" or the clinic would be forced to shut down.
Like other forms of healthcare, people want to take care of their pets properly and that makes demand relatively inelastic. If one clinic isn't taking appointments, they'll go to another even if the prices are 20% or more higher, especially if that one is more convenient to access. Once they're there, they'll usually stay for a long time.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#78Interesting. I'd like to see more action against the financialization of many other industries / domains, like healthcare and even housing, that I feel are not well served by a purely-market driven perspective. One wonders what the Private Equity firm's intention was here.
A bit of apples and oranges here. The goal of the FTC is not to make big companies smaller, it's to protect the market. They are not supposed to be the ones to determine if whales are natural or not to an ecosystem - so they don't generally go hunting them.
That's so 1980s. Your appeal to nature has nothing to do with the reality of the last several decades. Mergers among firms in the same market are never good for humans who must use those markets in order to live.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
The flaw in this idea is that there's no good way to introduce more competition to the market. The market is only going to continue to optimize for profit. The reason pricing isn't available is because that's negotiated between the provider and the insurance companies. Since most patients are using insurance, hospitals have to negotiate with some of the major insurance providers. Insurance companies do not want hospi…
> The market settled on this extremely convoluted system, which makes no sense to outsiders, specifically because it's so profitable Which exact parties are extracting excess profits?
It's mostly health insurance firms. That's a much bigger sector in USA than it is anywhere else on earth.
Re: FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One wonders what the Private Equity firm's intention was here. no, i don't think anyone's wondering that. private equity firms have one purpose and one purpose only.
I guess it might be fairer to then say "I wonder why nobody says out loud that such an acquisition will definitely lead to a decline in service for consumers".
"decline in service for consumers" -> squeezing the maximum quantity of blood nickels from suffering animals and their owners.