NewsBite

Healthscope

September

On the front line: St Vincent’s emergency department nurse manager Melanie Kelly and Dr Gonzalo Aguirrebarrena, head of the department.

‘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
A woman at Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney. The hospital is one of a chain owned by Healthscope, run by Canadian investment giant Brookfield.

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
Ben Brazil of FitzWalter Capital Partners, pictured in London.

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
Private Healthcare Australia chief executive Rachel David says Healthscope’s ad campaign against insurers has been a failure.

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
Private hospitals have been pushing for insurers to pick up more of the funding. Healthscope has succeeded in striking a deal with three major insurers.

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
Advertisement
Brookfield chief executive Bruce Flatt is the target of the new ad campaign.

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
Healthscope’s Northern Beaches Hospital.

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
Playing Solomon: Health Minister Mark Butler.

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
Healthscope has asked its largest landlord for rent assistance as it speaks to its lenders.

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
The rising costs have spurred calls for more oversight of billing practices to protect patients from surprise fees in the private health system.

‘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 Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.

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

Ramsay Health Care chief executive Craig McNally says patients will not be covered if their insurers refuse to pay for a higher proportion of medical costs.

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

Health Minister Mark Butler and Ramsay Health Care’s Australia boss, Carmel Monaghan, are key figures in working to resolve the financial crisis in private hospitals.

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 has purchased more than $5.5 billion in receivables from banks, telcos, utilities and the like.

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
The private hospital “health check” is due to be completed next month.

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
Advertisement

June

Dan Collins founded GenesisCare in Brisbane.

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

Metrics Credit Partners’s managing partner Andrew Lockhart.

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
Healthscope has a contract with the NSW government to run the public wing of Northern Beaches Hospital until 2038.

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 chief executive Greg Horan has been locked in negotiations with health insurers to better align the profit pool between hospital operators and insurance companies.

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 boss Greg Horan.

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

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/company/hso-pi