The FTC oversees mergers and acquisitions to ensure that they do not result in monopolies, but it typically focuses on buyouts that meet a large-dollar threshold — more than $100 million — though it can review smaller deals, as well. Companies purchased by private-equity firms generally fall under the threshold and so have escaped scrutiny.
In recent years, sophisticated private-equity investors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the health care industry, buying up nursing homes and hospice operations, hospital staffing companies and an array of doctors’ practices.