Senators launch bipartisan probe of private equity's growing role in U.S. health care
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Two U.S. senators have launched a bipartisan investigation into secretive and powerful private-equity firms' involvement in health care in the nation, demanding documents and information from executives associated with two hospital systems to assess how much profit they have generated through their complex financial arrangements and whether the deals harmed patients and clinicians. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is the committee's ranking member, are spearheading the inquiry. It began in March when Grassley requested information from private-equity giant Apollo Global Management , owner of Ottumwa Regional Health Center, a Lifepoint Health facility in southeast Iowa where a male nurse assaulted at least nine sedated patients in 2021 and 2022. The nurse later died from an overdose at the facility. "When it comes to our nation's hospitals, a business model t