Senator Hassan said Americans are drowning in medical bills

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) responded to a ProPublica investigative story titled, How Rich Investors, Not Doctors, Profit From Marking Up ER Bills, that highlighted how private equity groups that own medical staffing firms are ratcheting up consumer medical bills and skirting state corporate practice of medicine doctrines to increase their profits. Most states have this doctrine enshrined in law, which protects patients and doctors by requiring doctors to work for themselves or other doctors, not non-medical corporations. ProPublica’s investigation shows how private equity groups skirt the law in order to enhance corporate profits at the expense of patients.

“Granite Staters and Americans across the country are drowning in medical bills, and it is outrageous that private equity groups are gaming the system to profit even more off of patients and doctors,” said Hassan. “States have enacted laws specifically to ensure that big corporations cannot use doctors as middlemen to gouge consumers. Yet private equity groups are ratcheting up medical bills and skirting these laws, falsely claiming that they are supporting doctors, and padding their own pockets. Private equity groups must immediately end these practices, and I will continue to work to hold big corporations and insurance companies alike accountable for egregious conduct that harms patients and their families.”