Two former Carlyle Group staffers stand to impact how people get healthcare after a hospitalization. Harrison Frist was named CEO of NaviHealth in January. NaviHealth had two private equity owners, Welsh Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS) and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (CDR). CDR flipped NaviHealth for more than a double for a less than two year hold.
The Frist name is famous for starting hospital giant HCA, which had its time under private equity underwriter KKR. KKR siphoned billions from HCA adding to ridiculously high healthcare costs.
Senator Bill Frist M.D. is Harrison's father. Frist is listed as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Medical School. The former senator is also a PEU as Special Partner at Cressey and Co and founder/partner Frist-Cressey Ventures.
Harrison Frist has been called "a member of Nashville's first family of healthcare" and they've pocketed billions.
CDR Principal Eliot Blask also cut his PEU teeth at Carlyle. Blask submitted an Oregon regulatory filing for CDR's purchase of Kindred Hospice. Elliot made no news reports during his five years with Carlyle. He is a Vanderbilt University graduate and may well have gone to medical school but the financial world enticed him.
The filing has the typical PEU pablum. I've heard similar horse hockey at two PEU owned healthcare companies. I saw our owners cut staff, reduce benefits, send customer service scores into the tank and act like nothing bad was happening. Their attention was diverted to shiny pieces of silver and gold.
WCAS started Valtrius last fall to compete with Harrison Frist's NaviHealth. The greed and leverage boys are the herpes of healthcare. They are ugly, irritating as hell and never truly leave. Frist and Blask worked their way from Carlyle through our healthcare bloodstream. The result is yet another post-acute healthcare PEU infection.
Update 10-21-23: An article about wage theft brought back memories of one PEU takeover at a post acute healthcare company. Our new owners used high tech to rob staff of pay and mileage.
