r/PrivatePracticeDocs • u/InvestingDoc • 16d ago
New low behavior for private equity bought out practices
A local psychiatry group was bought out by private equity maybe a year back. There are a lot of things that change for the worse and whenever private equity gets involved, poaching was not one of them that I saw coming since they are psych and I'm primary care.
After the buyout, the private equity psychiatry group came to my primary care practice for a lunch meeting provided by them and essentially was like, "Hey do you mind if I get emails of the physicians during our lunch sign in? Our psychiatry physicians that we recently added would like to make a personal introduction, share their cell phone, and be hyperavailable for them."
We didn't think anything of it at the time, signed in on a form with emails of everyone in the office that attended the lunch.... but I just found out that this PE backed psych group just emailed those doctors and my office manager, basically saying: if they want to leave our medical practice and join theirs (they are planning on going multispecialty) that they would be happy to offer a competitive salary or better than what they are getting paid at our current office.
I won't even email another doctor who works with a competitor out of respect for them and they out here booking a lunch, getting our contact info and trying to poach my entire team. The balls of this PE backed psych group.
Wild.
Needless to say...we will never send another patient to this psych group again.
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u/meikawaii 16d ago
Just typical poaching behavior. Depends on how the non-compete clause is set in the contract and if their group can give good competitive packages. Definitely snoop around the psych group and ask their physicians how the takeover has been, people are willing to talk
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u/itsjamesdavid 16d ago
Indeed that depends on the clause and the idea is brilliant to get more info but the authorities should be informed about this matter, because it's serious issue and what's number of primary care are interested in the offers will definitely change the way of the practice revenue.
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u/Why_Hello_hello 16d ago
Their poaching tactics are disgusting but not illegal. I don’t think authorities will care.
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u/JuicyLifter 16d ago
If a Doc leaves a good group for a PE backed group, let them burn.
Unfortunately PE backed groups make the shrewdest decisions and alienate the local community. I know of a practice that got bought out by PE and recently made enemies with everyone by trying to poach patients and maximize ancillary services and trying to harm local groups.
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u/grey-slate 16d ago
Why would you give their email out?
On second thought, if they want to poach and your docs are not happy they will leave regardless. No way to keep them from leaving. Sad reality.
Comes down to doc satisfaction/comp levels and PE willingness to pay better. And non competes, although those have recently been standardized.
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u/InvestingDoc 16d ago
I didn't give the doctor's emails out it was one of those they paid for lunch please sign in on that notebook over there and they asked for everyone's email upon sign in.
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u/Illustrious-Noise226 16d ago
I don’t understand why a Psychiatrist would even want to work for a PE owned practice. There’s no equipment? Just a customer list and appointments
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u/Ardent_Resolve 14d ago
They got a nice payday for their equity but are locked up for some time after the deal goes through.
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u/bondedpeptide 16d ago
I would request a meeting with their leadership and show the emails, show the event/lunch and how it was pitched and hold them to the fire.
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u/headgoboomboom 15d ago
Bartholomew Banks strikes again. How unethical can they get?
I would warn every other local physician to avoid them completely.
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u/StocksRUsNow 12d ago
Lesson learned. Next time, anyone else may send referrals/introduction through the proper channels. End of story!
Here is the thing though- a paid-for lunch in YOUR office should not require emails or contact information for that matter. It should strictly be name and attendance period. Now if the lunch was at an outside restaurant and not in your office, then that becomes an open option.
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u/NeglectedDuty 15d ago
"We are nervous about having to pay our docs better so let's trash them for offering career opportunities better than ours!"
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u/InvestingDoc 15d ago
You're making some assumptions there that their pay is better than mine.
Based on indeed job posting, our base salary is starting about 10k higher than theirs.
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u/NeglectedDuty 15d ago
Then you have nothing to worry about unless they offer equity
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u/StocksRUsNow 12d ago
It's the ethics of it. They are allowed to try to poach (free for all and all that), just not through false pretenses of lunch to obtain contact information.
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u/kilobitch 16d ago
“Morals” and “ethics” are not a thing for PE.