A new study highlights how private equity-backed groups are overwhelming the arbitration process intended to resolve surprise billing disputes, extracting payments that are higher than what they’d ordinarily be able to negotiate.
The research found that roughly 70% of billing disputes submitted to arbitration in 2023 came from four private equity-backed organizations. One of the organizations collected almost twice the inflation-adjusted median rate health insurance plans paid in-network providers, while another organization collected up to eight times that amount over the last three quarters.
Private equity’s short term business model presents ongoing challenges to health care affordability. Surprise billing reform was created to help patients, not private equity.