When private equity firms buy your local hospital, your primary care doctor’s office, or your local nursing home, they profit. But what happens to those health care institutions, the patients they serve, and the people who work there?

On The Dose this week, Dr. Zirui Song, a renowned expert on private equity in health care, talks with host Joel Bervell about the ways private equity maximizes profits — from cherry-picking patients and reducing staffing to putting the institutions they buy in debt. He also discusses efforts underway to protect patients and communities.