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Medicine, like other guild professions like law, dentistry, and accounting, is an enterprise which seems to naturally fit the partnership model instead.
What is the value that private equity and/or VC are adding to dermatology? I guess what I'm asking is, why would the physicians be interested in sharing some portion of their income with these non-physicians? Medicine, like other guild professions like law, dentistry, and accounting, is an enterprise which seems to naturally fit the partnership model instead.
This doesn't really require private equity, but PE is providing a way to get a lump sum for this to doctors, and milking that cash cow.
There is also a growing remote/virtual dermatology sector which can see gains from technology, but I doubt PE is involved.
Healthcare providers are attractive to private equity 1) because of stable, non-cyclical cash flow, 2) benefits to scale (ie better negotiating leverage with payers), 3) ability to easily increase revenue at small clinics by "optimizing" billing (ie use more lucrative codes for the same procedure) and practice management (optimizing procedure mix and scheduling) and 4) regulatory protection -- local monopolies enjoy durable economic advantages and often are politically entrenched as healthcare providers are major employers
These factors aren't limited to private equity backed healthcare, though. Even non-profits take advantage of these things (sutter health in the bay area is an example). If you're looking for why US healthcare is so expensive, this isn't a bad place to start
What is the value that private equity and/or VC are adding to dermatology? I guess what I'm asking is, why would the physicians be interested in sharing some portion of their income with these non-physicians? Medicine, like other guild professions like law, dentistry, and accounting, is an enterprise which seems to naturally fit the partnership model instead.
I don't think any profession 'naturally fits the partnership model'. Some professions have simply managed to enshrine protectionism for themselves into law. There's precious little evidence that this is in any way beneficial for consumers and serves to do anything other than enrich the members of the professional guild at the expense of the public.
This isn't discussed much, but the healthcare provider industry has traditionally been a major sector of interest for private equity. Hospital companies like HCA, dental clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, etc. Healthcare providers are attractive to private equity 1) because of stable, non-cyclical cash flow, 2) benefits to scale (ie better negotiating leverage with payers), 3) ability to easily increase revenue at…
I don't care why because this is hacker news and I expect better article headlines than buzzfeed clickbait crap.
Academia isn’t built to cope with well funded adversaries. Journalists handle the heat much better, at least the NYT got hold of it.
This isn't discussed much, but the healthcare provider industry has traditionally been a major sector of interest for private equity. Hospital companies like HCA, dental clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, etc. Healthcare providers are attractive to private equity 1) because of stable, non-cyclical cash flow, 2) benefits to scale (ie better negotiating leverage with payers), 3) ability to easily increase revenue at…
The issue was a lot of private equity folks realized that you could just get in the market and if you didn't get enough rides... you just cranked up the price and went after individuals who where hardly in a position to shop around when they needed the ride.
Now there is an excess of medical helicopters, solution? Crank up the price...
What is the value that private equity and/or VC are adding to dermatology? I guess what I'm asking is, why would the physicians be interested in sharing some portion of their income with these non-physicians? Medicine, like other guild professions like law, dentistry, and accounting, is an enterprise which seems to naturally fit the partnership model instead.
People often wonder what the point of tenure is. Well this is it. Those authors need to not back down, and call attention to this. If they're tenured researchers or professors, they should be able to make publications like this without fear or retaliation from the school or industry.