Washington, DC — CEPR Co-Director Eileen Appelbaum welcomed the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Bill introduced to Congress today.
Appelbaum’s statement outlines how the legislation “…will empower state Attorneys General and the US Attorney General to claw back funds and impose civil and, in the case where a patient dies, criminal penalties on a PE firm and related financial actors whose financial engineering activities drove the health care organization to financial ruin.”
Appelbaum praises the bill for its ability to “…curb the use of financial engineering strategies that endanger the integrity of the US health system. It will curb abuses that I and other researchers investigating the financialization of America’s health system have identified. It will protect the right of patients to the best care possible, of professionals and frontline workers to adequate staffing and time with patients, and of communities to accessible health care.”
Appelbaum and other researchers sounded the alarm about private equity’s financial schemes for years, but the tentacles continue to invade every aspect of industry and services. But she has a particularly strong warning about PE in health care: “Private equity has a well-worn playbook that it uses to legally loot health care companies. These strategies erode the financial stability of organizations across the health care spectrum. But the effects of PE’s relentless pursuit of maximal profit in the four to seven-year window before it resells the company may be most pernicious in hospitals.”
“Not only does the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care bill curb the use of financial engineering strategies that endanger the integrity of the US health system, it offers justice for those harmed,” said Appelbaum.
View the full text of the statement here.
