COVID-19 & The Economy: Healthcare
Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers are logging countless hours and sacrificing their health to treat millions of people around the world who have contracted this rare coronavirus. The pandemic also triggered an economic crisis for many of those same providers. The abrupt decline in non-emergency healthcare visits has squeezed hospital budgets and upended physician practices across the country.
- Steep Job Losses – The healthcare sector shed 1.4 million jobs in April alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job losses spread across the entire industry and resulted from the broader economic slowdown.
- Drop in health services – Since the beginning of the outbreak, there has been a steep drop in just about every healthcare service, including elective surgeries, with patient visits to hospitals down more than 54 percent on average, according to an analysis by Stata Decision Technology.
- Limited Doctor Visits – People just aren’t visiting their doctors’ offices as much as they used to before the pandemic began, with the volume at physician practices down 30 to 75 percent, according to one survey, with primary care physicians seeing 40 to 50 percent fewer patients.
Amid this severe downturn, private equity has stepped in with critical capital, industry expertise and a proven track record of navigating previous recessions to help portfolio companies navigate this difficult stretch for the entire sector. Private equity supports physician practices, medical device manufacturers and other critical healthcare providers working around-the-clock to beat COVID-19. That list includes:
- Thoma Bravo-backed Imprivata is providing free software for doctors and nurses to treat patients remotely.
- TPG-backed GoHealth, a network of more than 150 urgent care centers across 10 states, has been on the front line to help stem the spread of COVID-19.
- Carlyle-backed Ortho Clinical Diagnostic is bringing an automated blood test to the market.
