Hospitals scoop up physician practices, driving prices up

[Alice B.]

5. I worked for a tech company that served the dental industry

… specifically multi-location practices that were increasingly PE-backed.

The argument for both consolidation and PE was the expense of setting up and operating a practice— there’s a lot of infrastructure cost associated with dentistry (in terms of tools, equipment and materials, which honestly I hadn’t considered until I got that job). Also, no one teaches you to run a business in dental school. There’s a lot of talk about “separating the clinical from the clerical” and “freeing” practitioners up to do what they do.

THAT said, there are stories about meeting financial targets that would stand your hair on end. We have got to do healthcare better in this country and at the end of the day, PE is not a public good culture.