Legislators pass toughest-in-the-nation restrictions on investor control of health care practices.
Oregon legislators last week passed a bill that prohibits non-physician investors from controlling medical practices.
SB 951 heavily restricts private-equity investment in the health care industry. According to legislative sponsors, it represents the nation’s strictest ban on corporate influence in medicine.
“We’re at an inflection point in this country when it comes to the corporatization of healthcare,” writes House Majority Leader Rep. Ben Bowman in a statement. “With the passage of this bill, every Oregonian will know that decisions in exam rooms are being made by doctors, not corporate executives.”
The Senate passed SB 951 on a vote of 21-8 in April. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives did so on a 41-16 vote. The bill next went to the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, who as of Tuesday, had yet to sign it.
Lawmakers gave the state the power to review and block healthcare deals in 1947, though medical groups contend that corporations now take advantage of numerous loopholes in the law and use paper owners to control medical practices.
Republican Rep. Cyrus Javadi of Clatskanie, a supporter of the bill, writes that since 1947, Oregon has clearly delineated who could own a clinic and who could practice medicine.
“We understood that healthcare isn’t just a business — it’s personal,” Javadi writes. “SB 951 updates that line for a world where private equity firms and management companies have figured out how to blur it. We owe it to patients and to the doctors who still believe in putting care first to draw that line again.”
A number of similar bills were also proposed this year. These efforts picked up steam following the bankruptcies of two formerly private equity-backed hospital chains, which triggered the closure of medical facilities around the country. Massachusetts, Indiana, New Mexico and Washington passed new oversight of corporate medical takeovers, while efforts failed this year in New York, Minnesota, Colorado and Illinois, according to the Wall Street Journal. California’s bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Oregon’s bill goes further than other states by seeking to block investors from controlling medical practices at all.
A bill similar to the one just passed in Oregon was introduced in 2024 and was ultimately unsuccessful. Supporters of SB 951 include a broad swath of medical professionals, including the Oregon Nurses Association, Oregon Emergency Medicine, Oregon Medical Association,
Supporters say they want to ensure financial investors stay out of the doctor-patient relationship and that medical decisions should be made by medical professionals. Critics, which included some medical trade groups and Amazon, which operates a chain of medical clinics, say the bill could reduce financial activity in the state.
One opponent, Ryan Grimm, president of the Oregon Ambulatory Surgical Center Association, with 70 members, told legislators in April his group opposed the legislation because it might challenge clinics attempting to attract the most elite doctors, who could be motivated by the offer of an ownership stake in a business. The bill could potentially drive away management companies and expert health groups, according to Grimm, and it could increase the likelihood of small clinics being acquired by large hospital chains.
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