As doctors, we went to medical school to provide great care of patients and make a difference in our communities. We served on the frontline during the pandemic and it left us with scars. Emergency physicians are the safety net, seeing anyone and everyone, 24/7, 365 days a year. We're here to save lives and hold your hand on your worst day. We don't want anyone else coming in between the patient and doctor relationship, especially not for-profit companies or private equity firms.

When American Physician Partners (APP) closes July 31, thousands of physicians will lose their malpractice insurance coverage and compensation for hours already worked. Dozens, if not more, hospitals will be in limbo. Without any input from the physicians working in the real world, these contracts were sold to the next highest bidder—US Acute Care Solutions (USACS), another for profit company. All of these companies work the same way. They undercut staffing to unsafe levels. They underpay providers. There’s unsafe supervision with inexperienced mid level providers and impossible performance metrics. When doctors speak up, they’re ignored, fired or blacklisted. These for profit companies don’t care about building relationships with patients, hospitals or their communities. If a site is no longer profitable after milking it for millions of dollars, they will just leave. This has been proven time and time again with other companies.

The buck stops here. Let’s take out private equity from the patient-doctor relationship and work together on long-term solutions like doctor-owned democratic groups. Local doctors should be in charge of their own groups and how it runs. They should be able to decide how their emergency departments are staffed and their own schedule. Doctors and patients should be the ones deciding their plan of care, not some administrator on the other side of the country. 

The time to act is now. Don’t let another greedy  for-profit company ruin another hospital. 

#takemedicineback