Diane Hazel Publishes Article on Antitrust Concerns of Private Equity Investment in Health Care Practices

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Diane Hazel authored the Medical Economics article, “Private equity investments in physician practices draw regulatory scrutiny,” exploring the growing concern among federal regulators around the significant increase in private equity funding and ownership of physician practices.

Hazel discusses the increasingly popular “roll up strategies” upon which much of the current government scrutiny is centered, where a private equity firm acquires a number of smaller firms to create a larger, integrated firm, and she assesses recently announced policy changes and statements by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission that signal increased attention from regulators.

“As a result of this increased interest from government regulators and enforcers, private equity firms—and companies backed or owned by private equity firms—should be aware of the regulatory interest and accompanying risk when making investment decisions,” Hazel concludes.