Private Equity’s Dental Playbook
In a Forbes article, Tony Lo Sasso, PhD, examines new research on private equity in dentistry showing that while acquisitions were not linked to higher insurer reimbursement rates, they were associated with shifts toward higher-revenue care that could reshape the profession’s future.
Private equity in dentistry has become one of the profession’s most polarizing topics, but new research suggests the story is more complicated than many headlines imply. In a recent Forbes article, author Tony Lo Sasso, PhD, explored forthcoming research on private equity ownership in dental practices and offered a more nuanced look at what happens after acquisition.
The most surprising takeaway is what the researchers did not find. According to Lo Sasso, private equity acquisition was not associated with higher negotiated reimbursement rates from insurers. This suggests private equity-backed groups were not simply flexing market power to extract better contract terms.
Instead, the changes appeared elsewhere. The research found that acquired practices increased their list prices and shifted care away from lower-cost preventive services toward more profitable restorative procedures. In other words, revenue growth did not seem to come from insurers paying more per procedure, but from changing the mix and intensity of care being delivered.
That distinction is huge for oral health professionals. It suggests the immediate concern may not be classic price gouging, but a subtle reshaping of treatment patterns inside the practice. Preventive care, long viewed as the backbone of oral health, could face pressure when financial incentives favor procedures with stronger margins.
The study also found no evidence that private equity ownership reduced Medicaid participation, an important finding in a debate often fueled by fears that financially driven models will reduce access for lower-income patients. Still, Lo Sasso argues that the bigger long-term issue is competition. If consolidation continues and local markets become more concentrated, bargaining power could eventually shift, giving larger groups more leverage with insurers. That is where today’s operational changes could become tomorrow’s pricing problem.
For oral health professionals, the message is clear: private equity is not a simple villain, but neither is it neutral. The real threat may emerge when consolidation weakens competition and changes begin to influence not just business operations, but the kind of care patients receive. Click here to read the article.
