September
‘At tipping point’: Inside one of Australia’s busiest hospitals
Doctors and nurses in Australia’s busiest emergency ward say the system is under unprecedented pressure amid a surge in mental illness and geriatric patients with nowhere else to go.
- Michael Smith
Is private equity unhealthy for our hospitals?
Billions of dollars have poured into healthcare assets over the past decade. Some warn that style of investing is incompatible with essential services.
- Michael Smith
- Opinion
- Investing
Why ‘lender-on-lender violence’ is on the rise
As the 2021 vintage of private equity loans fall due, things are getting a little nasty among lenders, and sometimes among their borrowers, too.
- Jonathan Shapiro
Insurers deny caving in to Healthscope demands
“Out-of-contract payments have not occurred in response to Brookfield and Healthscope’s heavy-handed US-style campaign,” says lobby group.
- Michael Smith
- Exclusive
- Health insurance
Healthscope forces big insurers to cough up to repair its profits
Medibank Private, NIB and HCF have agreed to out-of-cycle funding payments in the “tens of millions of dollars” for the Brookfield-owned hospital group.
- Michael Smith
Bugger off, Brookfield: Insurers hit back at private hospital chain
The increasingly bitter feud between insurers and private health operators is getting personal.
- Tom McIlroy
Brookfield’s Healthscope deal leaves a sick feeling
A weakened Healthscope is the face of the backlash agitating for more funding from the private health insurers.
- Jemima Whyte
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Playing Solomon on bitter divisions in private health
Health Minister Mark Butler’s review must eventually produce healthier private hospitals and health insurers that pass on the benefits in lower premiums.
- The AFR View
Private health giant Healthscope hopes for rent relief at 38 hospitals
But Health Minister Mark Butler has ruled out a taxpayer bailout for major private hospital operators, insisting they deal with soaring costs themselves.
- Tom McIlroy and Gus McCubbing
- Exclusive
- Healthcare
‘Bupa is bleeding us dry’: Healthscope CEO steps up insurer attacks
Australia’s second-biggest hospital group will launch an advertising campaign on Wednesday accusing insurers of under-funding healthcare.
- Michael Smith
WA calls for urgent action on private health funding crisis
The WA government says the nation’s private healthcare system needs immediate reforms, with the state’s health minister lamenting fundamental problems in the sector.
- Tom Rabe and Michael Smith
August
Private patients face Ramsay hospital lockout
The nation’s largest private hospital operator said it would refuse to deal with health insurers that did not agree to cover a bigger portion of surging costs.
- Michael Smith
July
Inside the stoush between private hospitals and health insurers
As finances deteriorate, insurers and providers are slugging it out over how to overhaul a healthcare system which has not seen serious reform in decades.
- Michael Smith
Panthera Finance administration prompted by founder stoush: PwC
The Brookfield-backed company collapsed into administration after the twin brothers who founded the debt collection business fell out with one another.
- Kylar Loussikian
Private hospital operators to hand over profitability data
Data about break-even points and investability will be handed to the Health Department by next week, The Australian Financial Review has learnt.
- Tom McIlroy
June
- Exclusive
- Healthcare
GenesisCare’s valuation shrinks to less than $500m after bankruptcy
Once a global cancer services giant, the company’s new owners are buying back shares from local backers for just $0.000186 as the business is restructured.
- Carrie LaFrenz
May
Healthscope is a fiasco for private debt funds – and their unitholders
In these situations, unitholders typically find out after the fact just how stressed the positions are.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Brookfield’s Healthscope debt trap is a mess for everyone involved
The investment giant is bringing its punchy approach to restructuring – and tactics more often found in the US – to Australia as it works on the hospital group.
- Jemima Whyte
April
Healthscope lenders add McGrathNicol to $1.6b debt restructuring
The advisory firm joins Houlihan Lokey in a quest to work out new terms for Brookfield’s private hospitals group.
- Aaron Weinman
March
Healthscope lenders poised to appoint Houlihan Lokey amid restructure
Houlihan Lokey restructuring whiz Jim McKnight is expected to be appointed by lenders at Brookfield’s private hospitals group Healthscope.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport