When and How Should Patients Be Informed About Clinicians' or Organizations' Sale of a Clinical Practice to a Private Equity Buyer?

Abstract

Private equity (PE) firms' acquisition and management of health service delivery entities, such as specialty physicians' practices, have been associated with increased cost and diminished quality of care. This commentary on a case argues that clinician-sellers have obligations to disclose to their patients known and foreseeable changes-especially those affecting services' cost or quality or health outcomes-to which PE ownership could contribute.