Washington, D.C. — In response to today’s introduction of the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley, as well as Representatives Val Hoyle, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Suhas Subramanyam, Economic Liberties released the following statement:

“The question this bill answers is simple: who does your doctor work for?” said Nidhi Hegde, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “Right now, for millions of Americans, the honest answer is a private equity firm or an insurance conglomerate whose goal is profit, not care. The corporate practice of medicine has been illegal in most states for a century, for exactly this reason. Closing the loopholes around these bans is a key step toward restoring clinical independence and breaking up Big Medicine, something polling shows most Americans  — across party lines — want. You cannot unwind corporate control of health care while corporations control the doctors themselves. This bill gives these bans real teeth.” 

“The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act will strengthen long-standing bans on the corporate practice of medicine, ensuring clinical decisions are made by licensed professionals sworn to care for patients, not corporations beholden to shareholders,” said Emma Freer, Senior Fellow for Health Care for the American Economic Liberties Project. “It’s an essential step toward reining in a system that drives costs up, quality down, and independent practitioners out of business.”

The bill arrives with striking public support for structural reform. Polling conducted by Economic Liberties and YouGov this summer found that 71 percent of voters back federal legislation to break up vertically integrated health care conglomerates, including 70 percent of Republicans. Additionally, 80 percent of voters, including 79 percent of Republicans, say hospital systems, insurers, and private equity firms have too much control over their health care. Most apropos to this legislation, the polling found that 66 percent of voters support a ban prohibiting private equity and other corporate entities from owning or controlling physician practices.

Across the country, private equity investors and corporate conglomerates have been consolidating control over medical practices at an accelerating pace — raising patient costs, worsening health outcomes, increasing mortality rates, and demoralizing medical professionals. While most states have longstanding Corporate Practice of Medicine bans meant to protect against these harms by requiring medical practices to be owned by the clinicians delivering care, investors now use separate legal vehicles known as management services organizations (MSOs) to functionally control medical practices without formally owning them.

The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act closes this loophole and ensures medical practices work for patients, not big corporations. If enacted, the bill would prohibit non-physician-controlled corporations from owning or controlling medical practices, bar corporate interference in clinicians’ medical decisions, restrict MSOs from controlling practices, and give the Federal Trade Commission, states, and injured individuals enforcement powers including divestiture and treble damages.

Read our policy agenda to break up Big Medicine and restore power to patients and practitioners, here.

Learn more about the Break Up Big Medicine movement here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.