PE-Owned Hospitals Paid Owners Millions and Got Low Care Ratings

PE-Owned Hospitals Paid Owners Millions and Got Low Care Ratings

Leonard Green bought Prospect for about $363 million including debt in 2010 when it was a five-hospital chain in Los Angeles, where the private equity firm is also based.. The hospital operator added $100 million to a bond offering to cut a check to Leonard Green and other shareholders in 2012, according to Moody's Investors Service.. Prospect acquired all of its hospitals with a current CMS star rating through transactions during or in years prior to 2016, according to previous statements.. For Eileen O'Grady , coordinator at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project , an advocacy group that scrutinizes private equity investments, and the author of a February report on Prospect, private equity's demand for outsized returns can put patients at risk and can lead to lower quality of care and less oversight.. Both Waterbury Hospital and Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which includes Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, were in serious financial distress and close to shutting when Prospect acquired them, the company said in an earlier statement.. "When no other hospital operators were willing to step up, Prospect saved the two hospital systems, preserved thousands of jobs, and secured the systems' existing pension funds,