Is TeamHealth Private Equity Owned?
TeamHealth
Includes Team Health, Team Health Holdings, Southeastern Emergency Physicians
emergency medicine staffing · Knoxville, TN
“Blackstone bought your ER doctor. Then they sued the patients.”
The PE Playbook
- •Blackstone acquired TeamHealth for $6.1 billion in February 2017 — its second time owning the company after buying it in 2005, taking it public in 2009, and cashing out
- •TeamHealth staffs nearly 1 in 10 emergency departments in the U.S. through 20,000+ affiliated physicians — when you see an ER doc, there's a decent chance Blackstone is their landlord
- •After the acquisition, TeamHealth's subsidiary filed 4,800+ lawsuits against patients in Shelby County, TN alone — they only stopped suing the poor after NPR and ProPublica investigated in 2019
- •A 2024 Senate investigation interviewed 40+ ER physicians who raised 'substantial concerns' about PE-owned staffing firms cutting hours, cutting pay, and understaffing emergency departments
Since the Acquisition
- ▸Patients reported being sued for medical debt by TeamHealth subsidiaries even when they qualified for financial assistance — thousands of lawsuits targeted low-income patients in Tennessee
- ▸ER physicians forced to manage 20-30 patients simultaneously (national average: 8-12), leading to 16-hour wait times at understaffed emergency departments
- ▸TeamHealth cut physician pay 4% and required more hours for benefits after losing a contract dispute with UnitedHealth — the cost of a billing war between giants gets passed to your ER doctor
- ▸Class action alleged TeamHealth ran two fraud schemes: upcoding non-physician services to physician rates, and billing for critical care that was never provided
Sources
- Why TeamHealth, Owned By Blackstone, Stopped Suing Poor Patients — NPR(2019-11-27)
- How Rich Investors, Not Doctors, Profit From Marking Up ER Bills — ProPublica(2019-11-27)
- Senator Probes PE Physician Staffing Firms for Emergency Care Cost Cutting — Fierce Healthcare(2024-04-01)
- TeamHealth to be Acquired by Blackstone for $6.1B — Healthcare Dive(2016-10-31)
Also owned by Blackstone
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is TeamHealth owned by private equity?
Yes. TeamHealth is currently owned by Blackstone, which acquired it in 2017. Blackstone bought your ER doctor. Then they sued the patients.
What happened to TeamHealth after the acquisition?
Patients reported being sued for medical debt by TeamHealth subsidiaries even when they qualified for financial assistance — thousands of lawsuits targeted low-income patients in Tennessee ER physicians forced to manage 20-30 patients simultaneously (national average: 8-12), leading to 16-hour wait times at understaffed emergency departments
Who owns TeamHealth?
TeamHealth is owned by Blackstone, which acquired it in 2017.