Pass the Warren/Markey Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act!

I understand that Senators Warren and Markey introduced legislation this week that would result in prison time for those who exploit the healthcare system for profit and endanger patients. Good! The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act would also offer state attorneys general and the U.S. Justice Department more tools to go after health care executives accused of corporate exploitation for endangering patient safety and access to health care. Over the last decade, private equity fund assets have more than doubled, totaling $8.2 trillion in 2023. While private equity funds have purchased companies in nearly every sector of the economy, their aggressive deal-making in the health care sector poses grave risks to patient health and raises questions about potential abuse of taxpayer dollars, as private equity companies routinely load up portfolio companies with usurious debt, sell off valuable assets, and extract exorbitant dividends and fees—regardless of how their investments preform.  Unfortunately, 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. 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. I strongly support this legislation and would like to see it passed into law. Please sign on as a co-sponsor right away. Thanks!