To prevent exploitative private equity practices, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act targets private equity firms and executives involved in health care acquisitions that result in patient harm. It creates criminal penalties (1-6 years imprisonment) for executives whose actions contribute to events that cause patient death or injury, and authorizes clawback of executive compensation for 10 years before or after a triggering event like bankruptcy, facility closure, or missed salary payments.
Who Benefits and How
- Health care workers: Clawed-back compensation must first go to cover shortfalls in salaries, benefits, and pension funds owed to current or past employees of failed health care facilities.
- Harmed communities: Remaining clawback funds must be used to serve the health care needs of communities harmed by facility failures.
- State attorneys general: Gain authority to bring civil actions to recover executive compensation when triggering events harm state residents.
- Medicare program: Eliminates favorable tax treatment for REITs that own health care property, potentially reducing real estate speculation in health care.
Who Bears the Burden and How
- Private equity firms: Face criminal penalties, civil penalties up to 5x clawback amounts, and compensation clawback authority reaching back 10 years for actions contributing to health care facility failures.
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): Lose special tax treatment for health care property ownership; entities selling assets to REITs or using assets as collateral for REIT loans are excluded from federal health care programs.
- Health care entities: Must file mandatory annual ownership reports with HHS including debt ratios, real estate arrangements, investor fees, and controlling entity information; face $5 million penalties for non-compliance.
- REIT investors: Lose qualified business income deduction for REIT dividends.
Key Provisions
- Creates 1-6 year criminal imprisonment for executives contributing to triggering events causing patient death/injury
- Authorizes clawback of all executive compensation (salary, bonuses, fees, golden parachutes) for 10 years before/after triggering events
- Excludes entities that sell assets to or pledge assets as collateral with REITs from Medicare/Medicaid
- Repeals special REIT rules for health care property under tax code
- Requires annual ownership transparency reports from hospitals, physician practices, and other health care entities
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates criminal and civil penalties for private equity firms and executives whose actions contribute to health care facility failures that harm patients, while establishing compensation clawback authority, restricting REIT involvement in healthcare, and mandating ownership transparency reporting.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Finance, Criminal Justice, Tax Policy, Private Equity
Primary Purpose
Creates criminal and civil penalties for private equity firms and executives whose actions contribute to health care facility failures that harm patients, while establishing compensation clawback authority, restricting REIT involvement in healthcare, and mandating ownership transparency reporting.
Policy Domains
Ownership Transparency and Reporting (Sections 6-7)
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- HHS
- Congress
- Public transparency
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Hospitals
- Health systems
- Physician practices
- Private equity-owned facilities
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Unjust Enrichment Clawback and Criminal Penalty (Section 2)
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Health care workers
- Patients
- Pension funds
- Harmed communities
- State attorneys general
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Private equity firms
- Private fund executives
- Health care facility executives
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
REIT Healthcare Restrictions (Sections 3-5)
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Medicare program
- Taxpayers
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Real Estate Investment Trusts
- Healthcare REITs
- REIT investors
- Health care entities using REIT financing
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMs. Warren (for herself and Mr. Markey) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Ambulatory surgical centers, Behavioral health facilities, Health care facilities using REIT financing
Positive-direction: Health care workers, Health care workers at acquired facilities, Healthcare workers
Negative-direction: Ambulatory surgical centers, Behavioral health facilities, Health care facilities using REIT financing, Healthcare facility directors and officers, Home health agencies, Hospitals and health systems, Physician practices
Private equity executives, Private equity executives and directors, Private equity-owned healthcare facilities
Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Inspector General, Medicare program
Positive-direction: Medicare program, U.S. Treasury
Negative-direction: Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Inspector General
Healthcare REITs, Taxable REIT subsidiaries owning healthcare property
Communities with closed health care facilities, Public seeking healthcare transparency
Healthcare REIT shareholders, REIT investors receiving dividends
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_attorney_general"
- → U.S. Attorney General
- "state_attorney_general"
- → State Attorney General
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
- "inspector_general"
- → Inspector General of Department of Health and Human Services
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Salary, bonuses, performance compensation, equity, monitoring fees, management fees, transaction fees, golden parachutes, severance, profits from securities/assets
Current/former directors, officers, control persons, agents of private equity or target firm; shareholders/JV partners participating in target firm affairs; any private fund
A health care corporation that is acquired in a change in control transaction
Includes: salary payments behind for 25%+ of workforce for 90+ days, facility closure, rent default 90+ days, loan default 90+ days, or bankruptcy filing
Acquisition of covered compensation from target firm during 10-year period if aggravating circumstances exist (dividend recapitalization, white-collar crime, fees for services not rendered, or interest coverage exceeding 100%)
Hospitals, health systems, physician practices, ambulatory surgical centers, behavioral health facilities, hospice programs, home health agencies, dialysis facilities, assisted living facilities, and entities that own/control them
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology