Press Release: 2/12/2026

Senator Warren, Rep. Goodlander, Lawmakers Renew Push to Root Out Private Equity Abuse in Health Care Amid Genesis Nursing Home Bankruptcies

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Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), along with House co-lead Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), introduced the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act of 2026 to root out corporate greed and private equity abuse in the health care system. Following the bankruptcies of Steward Health Care and Genesis Health, two tragedies that put the lives of patients and seniors at risk, the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act hasgained momentum.



Over the last decade, private equity fund assets have more than doubled, totaling $8.2 trillion in 2023. While private equity companies have purchased businesses in nearly every sector of the economy, their aggressive deal-making in the health care sector poses grave risks to patient health outcomes and raises fundamental concerns regarding the role of corporate interests in our healthcare system. Private equity companies routinely saddle companies they acquire with massive debt, sell off valuable assets, and extract exorbitant dividends and fees.



As a result, lax corporate accountability and transparency laws have provided cover for private equity’s parasitic practices, allowing executives to plunder hospitals, nursing homes, provider practices, and other health care entities with impunity.



“What happened with Genesis is the latest example of why we need to get private equity out of health care. We’ve seen enough to know that looting hospitals and nursing homes is basically a feature of private equity’s playbook,” said Senator Warren. “It's about time that corporate executives face real legal consequences when they put patients and communities at risk."



“I’ve spent my career standing up to powerful corporate interests that put their own profits ahead of people. For far too long, loopholes and lax laws have empowered private equity firms to plunder hospitals, nursing homes, and provider practices at unacceptable costs to the lives and livelihood of hardworking Americans,” said Congresswoman Goodlander. “Our commonsense Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act will prevent these abuses and ensure long-overdue accountability for corporate crimes.”



The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act will:




  • Create a new criminal penalty of up to 6 years in prison for executives who loot health care entities like nursing homes and hospitals if that looting results in a patient’s death.

  • Provide state attorneys general and the DOJ with the power to claw back all compensation, including salaries, issued to private equity and portfolio company executives within a 10-year period before or after an acquired health care firm experiences serious, avoidable financial difficulties due to that looting.

  • Authorize an associated civil penalty of up to 5 times the clawback amount.

  • Prohibit payments from federal health programs to entities that sell assets or use assets for a loan collateral made to a REIT, with an exemption for current arrangements; repeal a rule in the Tax Code that allows taxable REIT subsidiaries to exert influence on the operations of health care entities; and remove the 20 percent pass-through deduction, passed in the 2017 Trump tax cuts, for all REIT investors.

  • Require health care providers receiving federal funding to publicly report mergers, acquisitions, changes in ownership and control, and financial data, including debt and debt-to-earnings ratios.

  • Mandate an HHS OIG report to Congress on the harms of corporatization in health care.



“Sick patients should never be used to turn healthy profits. But that’s exactly what is happening in Oregon and across the nation as greedy corporate executives turn hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors’ offices into profit centers,” said Senator Merkley. “We must crack down on private equity, whose greed is destroying our health care system for executives’ personal profit while patients are stuck footing the bill.”



“The Steward crisis exposed the dangers of private equity taking over our health care system. Instead of improving the health care provided by hospitals in Massachusetts and across the country, Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his corporate cronies raked in record profits and left workers and patients to fend for themselves. We must pass the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act to end corporate greed in health care and prevent another Steward crisis from happening again,” said Senator Edward J. Markey.



“We have a health care crisis in this country. Our profit-driven health care system is expensive, inefficient, and inaccessible to those who need it most. And private equity’s growing foothold in health care is only making this crisis ten times worse. It’s contributing to medical debt, worsening health outcomes, and creating unsustainable employment conditions for many health workers. It is far past time to put the needs of people over profits and hold private equity accountable. The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act is an important and significant step in that direction,” said Michelle Sternthal, Interim Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Community Catalyst.



“MNA nurses and healthcare professionals know all too well what happens when private equity firms and other for-profit operators take over our healthcare facilities. The drive to extract profits from healthcare has repeatedly jeopardized patient safety and destabilized the communities these organizations are supposed to serve. That is why we strongly support Senator Warren’s legislation to hold corporations accountable, recover the resources siphoned away from patient care, and ensure that those funds are directed toward healing our patients and not exploiting them,” said Katie Murphy, RN, President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.



“Given the recent and difficult financial challenges facing providers across the country, it is now more important than ever to hold private equity and hedge fund owners accountable for the financial wellbeing of healthcare companies in their portfolios. These pressures are only worsened by the extractive business practices associated with private funds and the documented consequences that follow. That is why the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act is a necessary and urgent intervention that would help protect the integrity of the nation’s healthcare systems,” said Chris Noble, Policy Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP).



“SEIU members have seen, again and again, that when corporations treat healthcare like a cash grab, patients and frontline workers suffer the consequences. This bill sends a clear message to private equity firms that seek to line their pockets at the expense of people’s lives that if they cause real harm, they will face real consequences. We applaud Senator Warren for introducing legislation that will hold private equity companies accountable when their greed harms our families and communities,” said SEIU Executive Vice President Leslie Frane.