What is private equity in healthcare?
Private equity in healthcare is the acquisition and control of facilities and provider organizations — nursing homes, physician practices, hospitals — by private equity funds, typically through leveraged buyouts with exits within 3–7 years. CMS required private-equity ownership disclosure for nursing homes in 2023, citing peer-reviewed research associating PE nursing-home ownership with reduced staffing and more deficiency citations.
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Full name: Private Equity Ownership Disclosure in Healthcare
Short explanation
Private equity (PE) ownership in health care refers to the acquisition and control of health care facilities and provider organizations — including nursing homes, physician practices, hospitals, and behavioral health providers — by private equity funds. PE firms typically acquire health care entities through leveraged buyouts, apply financial and operational restructuring, and exit within 3–7 years through resale or initial public offering. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have associated PE ownership of nursing homes with reduced staffing hours, increased deficiency citations, and higher short-term mortality among residents. CMS introduced mandatory private equity ownership disclosure requirements for nursing homes in 2023, and this data is published through the SNF All Owners dataset and Care Compare.
How it’s used
- Fonteum NH Ownership Concentration study: private-equity and other multi-facility owners are mapped across the 14,425 skilled nursing facilities in CMS's PECOS ownership file — 71.9% of which disclose a multi-facility organization among their owners — published at /research/nursing-home-ownership-concentration-2026.
- CMS Care Compare (nursing homes): PE ownership status is now published on Care Compare through the SNF All Owners dataset, fulfilling CMS's 2023 nursing home ownership transparency requirements.
- CMS Provider of Services (POS) File: facility CCNs in the POS file are the join key for linking PE ownership records in the SNF All Owners dataset to facility quality and inspection data.
Frequently asked questions
- What is private equity ownership in nursing homes?
- Private equity ownership means a PE fund has acquired controlling interest in a nursing home operator or management company — typically through a leveraged buyout — with the intent to sell or take public within several years.
- How has research characterized PE ownership in nursing homes?
- Peer-reviewed studies have found associations between PE ownership and lower nurse staffing, higher deficiency citation rates, and increased short-term mortality, though causality and sample composition vary by study.
- Is nursing home PE ownership data publicly available?
- Yes. CMS's 2023 nursing home ownership transparency rule requires PE disclosure. The SNF All Owners dataset — published at data.cms.gov — includes PE fund and management company ownership percentages.