An article recently jumped out at me for highlighting the competing interests of private equity and medical care. The piece is the latest story of private equity putting profits ahead of patients, and the compromises it forces physicians to make in order to get there. It also follows a growing body of research highlighting the drawbacks of private equity in medicine. It is becoming clear that all too often when private equity takes over private practices, patients’ well-being gets compromised for the sake of profits.

Physicians enter the practice almost universally to help and improve the lives of other people. They train really hard, sacrificing much, on the way to a specialty and work hard once they are licensed and practice independently. And they earn an income commensurate with the training, specialization, and demand for their skills.

The NBC News piece recounted the experience of a dermatologist, Dr. Allison Brown, in Tennessee who was pushed out of her practice after complaining that her clinic’s financial investors were regularly sacrificing patient and physician well-being in order to maximize profits. Some examples she highlighted were an increased push to perform expensive unnecessary procedures, understaffing the clinic, and poor communication/reporting systems leading to missed diagnoses. Some of these missed diagnoses included melanoma, a deadly skin cancer if left untreated.

 Dr. Brown was one of a half dozen clinic employees or former employees who voiced similar complaints. The other individuals are bound by non-disparagement clauses or fear reprisals for speaking out. The complaints have been met with broad generalizations and affirmations from the private equity firms backing the clinic, but that has been just about the extent of their response. Aside from firing Dr. Brown and pursuing a non-disparagement agreement attached to back pay and insurance reimbursement.

Dermatology is merely one of the specialties seeing a sea change thanks to investment from private equity. And we will likely require another sea change to stem the tide.