McGuireWoods Chicago partner Amber McGraw Walsh was quoted in a Jan. 8, 2020, Managed Care magazine article on the tripling of private equity investment in healthcare since 2009. The chair of the firm’s Healthcare Department discussed the continued interest in the healthcare sector among private equity investors.
While private equity keeps investing in physician practices such as primary care, women’s health, urology and ophthalmology, Walsh said fee-for-service revenues could shrink due to increases in labor costs and technology investment. “The most astute [firms] think about value-based purchasing and how to transform companies so the focus is on reducing costs and still being profitable,” she said in the article.
Walsh, founder of the firm’s Women in Private Equity & Finance Initiative, also dispelled the impression that private equity is resistant to important changes in the healthcare practices they manage. “Many private equity investors want to be in really good dialogue with payers,” she said. “All have to have a seat at the table together.”
Walsh co-chairs McGuireWoods’ 17th Annual Healthcare Private Equity & Finance Conference, to be held in Chicago Feb. 19-20.