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I have spent years helping companies grow and thrive and know what powers success: wise investment, operational expertise and good leadership. These fundamentals apply across every sector of our economy—including health care, where good business sense is needed now more than ever.
Indiana health care is flashing warning signs on nearly every metric. Forbes Advisor ranks Indiana as the 10th unhealthiest state, with high costs and poor outcomes. The Indiana Hospital Association recently reported that many of our 170 hospitals are struggling to survive amid rising costs and decreasing revenue. More than 70% of our counties are medically underserved. These aren’t just statistics. They represent a growing public policy problem that requires careful attention and, crucially, investment.
There is an ongoing debate about “who” should be allowed to invest in health care. Some leaders are calling for severe restrictions on private capital investments in our health system. Other policymakers are advocating for modest oversight of transactions involving corporate owners. Indiana leaders should take a conservative approach to regulating private capital investments in health.
The problems in health care boil down to too little funding, not too much. The truth is that responsible private capital can help patients. How do we know? We can see it in Indiana today.
Consider Urology of Indiana. This practice wanted to expand to serve more patients and better compete with practices owned by large hospital systems. Through a partnership with U.S. Urology Partners, it accessed the capital needed to grow its footprint and bring new technologies to communities throughout the region.
Then there is PurposeCare, a company that specializes in home and health services for vulnerable Medicare and Medicaid recipients who need care at home. PurposeCare began as a single Indiana agency. With private capital backing, it has grown into a regional provider serving more than 4,000 clients across the upper Midwest and employs about 1,100 Hoosiers across more than five locations. PurposeCare and other practices also save the health system money by reducing costly hospitalizations that Medicare might otherwise pay for.
The urgent care sector provides another compelling example of the power of private capital investments. Since 2020, private investors have directed more than $15 billion toward establishing more than 250 urgent care clinics nationwide. These clinics provide vital access to immediate care for rural Hoosiers who live far from hospitals. Urgent care shows exactly how private capital should work—identifying unmet needs and deploying resources to address them efficiently.
Critics argue that private investment leads to decreased quality as investors prioritize profits over care. I can tell you that successful private investment depends on improving service quality, not diminishing it. Recent research from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business supports this view. Researchers there looked at a set of health care facilities in Florida with private capital backing and determined that private equity involvement did not compromise physicians’ medical decision-making or their ability to act in patients’ best interests.
Indiana health care facilities are fighting to survive in a market that is increasingly dominated by a few large actors. Providers also face new demands, such as adopting AI-powered tools that can detect diseases earlier and help with treatments. These improvements require millions in upfront investment that many providers do not have.
I’ve seen firsthand how private capital, properly deployed, can help good businesses become great ones. Rather than placing severe restrictions on private investment in health care, leaders should focus on encouraging responsible investment while maintaining appropriate oversight. Our state’s health care challenges are too serious to eliminate tools that could help address them.•
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Abbasi is managing partner at Centerfield Capital Partners.
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