Some Private Equity Firms Would Rather Let People Go Blind Than Reduce Their Profits

InnovationHealthcareSome Private Equity Firms Would Rather Let People Go Blind Than Reduce Their ProfitsByPeter Ubel,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I am a physician and behavioral scientist at Duke University.Follow AuthorMay 20, 2026, 10:38am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.The patient noted tiny gray flecks drifting across his field of vision a week ago. He’d try to look at them, and they seemed to scatter like a cockroach after you turn on the kitchen light. Weird; annoying even – but the floaters did not seem urgent. That soon changed. Seven days later, he started losing his vision; it felt like a curtain was coming down over his left eye. He was within hours of permanently losing sight in that eye, his retina detaching from the back of his eyeball. He needed emergency surgery, “before the sun rises again,” according to experts.Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be a problem. Any ophthalmologist would recognize these symptoms and rush to meet the patient. But not necessarily if that eye doctor works for a private equity-owned practice, because such practices are increasingly refusing to perform this emergent procedure. The procedure, you see, is not a moneymaker. Private equity investors want timely profits. They don’t purchase ophthalmology practices in order to lose money.In recent years, many private equity firms have bought up physician practices, and then looked for ways to increase profits. Sometimes they achieve profits by bringing administrative efficiencies to bear upon their practices. Other times, after buying enough practices to gain local market share, they increase prices, with insurers having little choice but to pay the bills. But in other cases, they direct clinicians to perform relatively lucrative procedures while reducing, or eliminating, the performance of unprofitable ones.Consider emergency sur...