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. 

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