Bloomberg: Pennsylvania Fights Hospital Closures With Curb on For-Profit Buyers
(link) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-23/pennsylvania-bill-targets-maternal-care-desert-in-suburban-philadelphia?srnd=citylab-economy
The package of bills would also prohibit owners from taking out dividends within two years of an acquisition and limit a type of financing known as sale-leaseback transactions on hospitals’ real estate. The legislation was floated at the end of the session last year but didn’t progress. A separate bill introduced this year, meanwhile, would make it more difficult to close hospitals.
The legislation, which is similar to efforts to curb corporate ownership and closures in a handful of states like Rhode Island and Illinois, comes after cutbacks at private equity-owned Crozer Health and its closure of two Pennsylvania facilities: Springfield Hospital early last year in a move it called temporary, and Delaware County Memorial in November amidst a court battle over its future.
The private equity industry’s charge into hospital ownership has lawmakers and patient advocates across the country on edge just as labor shortages and inflation have thrown the industry into financial crisis. The backlash is unsurprising since private hospitals have a reputation for putting profits ahead of the needs of the community, especially in poor areas, said Alan Sager, professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University.
- more at link -
This is a developing story that can also be followed on the "Pennsylvania State Senate Co-sponsorship" website.
Link is here: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20230&cosponId=40280&mc_cid=a2a17effcd&mc_eid=3ab2f24ac3
= new reply since forum marked as read
They've bought up the major hospital networks here, with the obvious implications for women's reproductive healthcare even before the state started passing anti-abortion measures. 
I think the Catholic church sold off several (maybe all) of their local hospitals. That happened over 10 years ago.
They were smaller hospitals and they were run as non-profits, but there weren't enough nuns to work in the hospitals any more. They've been bought up by UPMC and Allegheny General and added to the already huge conglomerates.
In most areas I think you're going to see that the Catholic Church is selling off all it can to avoid bankruptcy.
because this kind of crap has gutted Philly of its hospitals - most recent and notable being Hahnemann. In fact I just found a long-form article on that fiasco in New Yorker mag published in 2021 - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/the-death-of-hahnemann-hospital
Link to tweet
@HelenBurstin
·
Follow
A cautionary tale on the unchecked growth of private equity in healthcare. Must read @NewYorker article on private equity and the closure of Hahnemann Hospital.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/the-death-of-hahnemann-hospital?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker&utm_social-type=earned
via @NewYorker
Image
9:07 PM · Jun 1, 2021
Aside from the article's description at the beginning with a claim of where the hospital was located (and no, it wasn't "on the edge of North Philadelphia" - it was right downtown), it overlooked I-676 -
and was relatively close to I-95 and also had a heliport on the roof for air ambulances (also not mentioned in the article), so had a steady stream of car accident victims and during the '80s, had become a Level 1 Trauma Center.
But it did become a "catch all" hospital after PGH (Philadelphia General Hospital) closed (which happened over 45 years ago) and when the vultures got to it, they milked it and milked and destroyed it.