We have long been tired of the often-inaccurate claims of “private equity’s takeover of the nursing home industry” and the too-simplistic or misleading correlations between PE ownership and quality of care. Of course there are never any mentions of the need for SNF owners to make a profit or the benefits of fresh capital injections into the industry and into aging physical plants. We have also written several times that, according to our data, PE firms have only been the buyers in about 5% of SNF deals, a share that has actually shrunk in the last couple of years.
Seniors housing was higher, above 10% of acquisitions, but a study done by our sister site LevinPro HC shows that several other healthcare sectors are far closer to an actual “takeover” by PE. According to LevinPro HC, in 2023, there were 766 transactions across the 12 other healthcare sectors besides long-term care that were completed by a private equity group, and/or a portfolio company, equating to roughly 35% of the nearly 2,200 healthcare deals announced during the year.
Breaking out by sectors, home health saw 45% of acquisitions with a PE buyer in 2023, behavioral health was at 51%, and physician medical groups saw 71% of deals made by private equity. But the SNF sector, a perennial easy punching bag for politicians and the media, gets all the attention. Look out for our whitepaper on the issue coming out soon.
