Part2
What Happens When Wall Street Owns Your Neonatal Care or Anesthesia Practice? Part two
Myron Yaster MD and William Greeley MD, MBA
RON LITMAN
JUL 13, 2023
“No matter what anyone says, it’s always about money”. Mark Rogers MD
Today we continue our discussion of what happens when private equity (PE) buys and owns your anesthesia practice. Myron Yaster MD
To understand the world of PE funding and how it works is fundamental to understanding the economic forces driving the motivations and expectations of these Firms in Health Care. In general,
one asset class of any pension fund or IRA portfolio is what is grouped as Alternative Investments. In the world of finance, the life cycle of alternative investments starts with Angel investors (startups), proceeds through Venture capital, matures through Private Equity and lands successfully as an IPO. In the third PE stage, a Firm generally manages somewhere between $100 M to $10 B in total assets divided over 7 – 10 investments in targeted businesses, where 50% or so will eventually fail; high risk, high return. The PE Fund managers have told the Institutional investors (pension managers) to expect at least a certain return on their investment (e.g. 5 – 7%). The PE Fund managers then make their money on an administrative fee (e.g., 2% of total assets) AND then on
a 20% carried interest rate on any profits above the targeted 5 – 7% hurdle rate. So, PE Managers are especially incentivized and growth-driven to get to the carried interest rate. The PE Firms employ a widely used metric (EBIDTA- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization) to assess corporate profitability, and to choose and monitor their investment portfolio. The
expectation is that the profitability will grow at least 3 – 5 times EBIDTA over 5 -7 years to meet the Institutional Investors’ expectations and the PE’s own expectations with carried interest rates. Knowing that 50% of their investment business ventures will fail, these losses are factored into the financing and profitability requirements of those businesses who succeed. Finally, the PE firms only get their money usually by exiting in the 5 – 7-year timeframe and getting a buyer at 3 – 5 times the purchase price.
So, the dynamics of PE investing has many important implications on the expectations and performance of physician practices. To quickly get to expected profitability (multiples of EBIDTA), there are short term fixes to revenue and expenses. In purchasing established physician practices, the typical strategy is to buyout the senior partners and then reset total cost of the practice at a lower level. This latter is typically done by hiring newer/younger practice members at a lower cost; the “churn and burn” strategy. As noted in both the Anesthesiology and Neonatology publications referenced above, revenue is increased by significantly increasing the price of professional services to insurers and other purchasing groups. When a physician management company (PMC) begins providing services in a facility, the PMC typically renegotiates payer contracts. They might leverage their market power to negotiate higher payment rates from insurers, benefiting practitioners but potentially increasing prices for commercially insured patients. Additionally, PE firms will decrease administrative costs by using economies of scale through corporate functions, e.g., billing and collections, etc.” By standardizing care and improving managerial processes, PMCs might also be able to increase quality and lower costs”.2
Most of these short-term revenue and cost strategies are one-time events and do not address growth opportunities that in the long term are required for sustainability of increasing profitability.
The investment of PE firms in PMCs is the Achilles heel of the PMC model. Opportunities to extract costs and add revenue are not infinite. Insurance payers, the government and hospitals are beginning to push back. Private equity investors expect that they will have their investments (and any profits) returned to them in 3 to 7 years. For private equity interests to be sold at an acceptable profit, someone must be willing to buy. As noted by Crosson et al. “that purchaser could be either another private equity firm or a health care entity such as a hospital or a health plan. That purchaser (
the “greater fool”?) will have to believe that further cost reductions can be made and/or that yet further revenue increases are possible without triggering counteractions either by payers, the government, or the involved physicians.
Without willing purchasers, the private equity investment model collapses”4.
In my experience (BG) in evaluating several distressed anesthesia practices that are managed by PMCs that are PE supported, good Institutional citizenship is also lacking and a point of contention with Hospital Administrators and other physician colleagues. Fundamentally, supporting Quality Improvement and Patient Safety initiatives are not remunerative and consequently poorly supported, even in perioperative areas where this is “our turf” as anesthesiologists. In some practices, there is an administrative surcharge (millions $) charged by the PMC to the Hospital Adm. At time of contract renewal this charge has been challenged when
good citizenship participation is underserved. Also, it is my view that PMCs backed by PE have focused on the most beneficial and profitable physician specialities. They have targeted sole, isolated, procedural based subspecialties (Neonatology, Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Dermatology, etc.) and stay away from complex practices such as multispecialty physician groups.
Finally, and most importantly, the goals of PMCs and PE may be at odds with physician professionalism. Indeed, our professionalism may be that the only real guardrail to protect the quality of care we provide to patients and the services we provide. The next few years will be especially challenging for all Health Systems and Hospitals where more than 50% will experience operating losses. This will require focused investment in growth opportunities, optimizing revenue performance and disciplined cost reduction. It is difficult to see how PMCs backed by PE will stay in this difficult economic environment in Healthcare to maintain profitability when other industries such as technology and finance are more attractive and profitable for investment.
Why PMCs funded by PE may fail will be due to several factors: the competition is better, execution is not fast and funding expectations are wrong. Medicine is a complex industry with many competing constituencies (Government, Insurers, the Patient, Health Systems, etc.) that must be addressed and accounted for. The
economic fundamentals of PE investing may not be doable in this difficult, future Healthcare sector. The Finance and Technology sectors are accustomed to the principle of Moore’s law which describes the driving force of technological and social change, productivity, and economic growth. Over time, things get better, are faster, and cost less. Medicine is not there yet at all, and still a cottage industry. The consumer of care is not the payor, and the payor is the provider.
Many of you work or have worked for PMCs either with or without PE funding. Many of you work in organizations that are considering using PMCs to divest the problems of current reimbursement and faculty retention. We’d love to hear your thoughts and send to Myron who will post in the Friday Reader Response.
References
1. Crosson FJ. Physician Management Companies-Should We Care?
JAMA internal medicine. Apr 1 2022;182(4):404-406. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.0001
2. La Forgia A, Bond AM, Braun RT, et al. Association of Physician Management Companies and Private Equity Investment With Commercial Health Care Prices Paid to Anesthesia Practitioners.
JAMA internal medicine. Apr 1 2022;182(4):396-404. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.0004
3. Yu J, Tyler Braun R, Bond AS, et al. Physician Management Companies and Neonatology Prices, Utilization, and Clinical Outcomes.
Pediatrics. 2023;151(4)doi:10.1542/peds.2022-057931
4. Lorch SA. Profits, Providers, and Private Companies: What Happens When Wall Street Owns Your Neonatal Care.
Pediatrics. 2023;151(4)doi:10.1542/peds.2
Myron Yaster MD and William Greeley MD, MBA
open.substack.com