Doctors form new coalition focused on reducing private equity’s role in cardiology, other healthcare specialties

Thousands of U.S. physicians have joined forces to launch the Coalition for Patient-Centered Care (CPCC), a new organization focused on reducing the involvement and influence of private equity in the American healthcare system.

CPCC’s members include more than 5,000 physicians from 46 U.S. states. The OrthoForum, a Tennessee-based group of private orthopedic practices, the Association for Independent Medicine (AIM) and PELTO are also listed as founding members on the organization’s website.

According to the newly formed group, it wants to eliminate tax breaks associated with private equity-funded acquisitions and close loopholes that allow private equity-backed groups to “circumvent the ban on the corporate practice of medicine. The group also aims to ensure private equity-funded acquisitions of physician practices are regulated just as closely as any other healthcare merger or acquisition.

“Independent physicians across specialties including radiology, anesthesiology, cardiology and more will have a better chance of influencing policy in the right direction than any one specialty standing alone,” AIM President Marco Fernandez, MD, a veteran cardiac anesthesiologist and CPCC founding member, told Cardiovascular Business.

“When private equity takes over, they often hire less-expensive, less-experienced providers and make them work harder,” added surgeon Stephen McCollam, MD, another founding CPCC member. “From what I’ve seen, this results in lower quality care, higher utilization rates of expensive specialty testing —due to a lack of experience and lack of confidence in their clinical abilities—and higher burnout rates. Ultimately, these effects of private equity ownership cost the patient more while providing lower quality care.”