CHESTER, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Speaking in front of the now-closed Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a new proposal to reform private equity ownership of hospitals.
Shapiro on Thursday voiced his disdain for Prospect Medical Holdings, the for-profit firm that purchased Crozer Health and later shut down dozens of medical practices and four of its hospitals in Delaware County, the most recent being Crozer-Chester and Taylor Hospital earlier this month.
“After pulling as much money as they could out of this community, Prospect then protected themselves and the profits they made by filing for bankruptcy,” said Shapiro.
The closures left thousands of people out of work and no emergency services for residents in the immediate area. Only two hospitals remain in Delaware County: Mercy Fitzgerald in Darby and Riddle in Media.
Shapiro is backing up his frustration with action. He touted the Health System Protection Act, newly introduced legislation that would “stop exploitative private equity practices and empower Pennsylvania’s attorney general to block bad deals that threaten access to care.”
The bill would ban sale-leaseback arrangements, which happened with Prospect.
“Private equity firms force hospitals to literally sell off the land that those hospitals are built on, and then they rent those spaces back at ridiculously high prices,” Shapiro explained. “What they’re really doing with that arrangement is sucking a whole bunch of money out of the health care system and putting it back in their private equity pockets.”
He encouraged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to pass it.
“I am done letting private equity wreak havoc on our health care system, wreak havoc on our communities,” he added, “treating our hospitals like a piggy bank that they can drain and then smash on the floor.”