About a third of ER doctors now work for companies backed by private equity. A lot of those docs do not like the arrangement, which they say puts profits ahead of patients. Now, a group of ER docs are suing to kick one of those private-equity owned companies out of their hospital– and all of California. They see it as the first step in a long, long fight. 

The suit cites California’s ban on the “corporate practice of medicine” — which is supposed to outlaw situations where non-doctors tell doctors what to do, for profit. 

Which raises a question:  How did it get left to a group of doctors to get that law enforced? 

We break it down, with help from:

• Dr. Lisa Moreno, immediate past president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine which filed the lawsuit.
• Law professor Erin Fuse Brown, who has written about private equity’s growing role in medicine.
• Legendary financial reporter Gretchen Morgenson, now at NBC News, who has been reporting on private equity’s role in medicine since 2020, and whose reporting tipped us off to this lawsuit.  

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

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