The trend toward investor ownership is part of a broader national shift in health-care consolidation, said Hayden Rooke-Ley, a senior fellow at Brown University’s School of Public Health. Over the last decade, large non-hospital retailers such as Amazon and Walgreens, along with insurance conglomerates, have restructured to own or manage medical practices, drug distributors and wholesalers.
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Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research
Hayden Rooke-Ley JD
Senior Fellow
Biography
Hayden Rooke-Ley is a Senior Fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health. His scholarship and expertise focuses on corporate consolidation in health care, Medicare and Medicaid financing, and labor and workforce issues in the health sector. He has published extensively in leading journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and advises state and federal policymakers, enforcement agencies, and other health care stakeholders. Previously, he served as a health policy advisor in Congress and worked at Aledade. He earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, clerked for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, and is a licensed attorney in Oregon.
Recent News
This piece, authored by Hayden Rooke-Ley, argues that while the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act threatens to gut Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion over a decade, states still have powerful tools to protect coverage and even strengthen their healthcare systems. By capping inflated prices in the private insurance market and redirecting those savings to Medicaid—where every dollar is federally matched—states can blunt the impact of federal cuts, support vulnerable providers, and reduce systemic inequities.
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Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon lawmakers vote to block rising corporate ownership of medical clinics
On Wednesday, the state House passed Senate Bill 951, the latest effort to expand Oregon’s prohibitions on corporate ownership in local care providers.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive
Doctors unions, like the one on strike at Providence, are growing more common
Physicians, traditionally less unionized, are aligning with nurses and other healthcare workers due to shared grievances over understaffing, burnout, and corporate cost-cutting practices exacerbated by the pandemic. Hayden Rooke-Ley comments on this trend highlighting his study that found that the number of physician unions formed between January 2023 and May 2024 nearly equaled those established over the previous two decades (2000–2022).
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The article discusses the proposed merger of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Legacy Health, which has drawn significant criticism for potentially violating federal antitrust standards. Advocates argue the merger would lead to excessive market consolidation in Oregon, controlling a majority of hospitals in key regions and potentially driving up healthcare costs without improving access or quality.
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Health Affairs Forefront
California’s Failed Bid To Regulate Private Equity Investment In Health Care
The article examines California’s failed attempt to regulate private equity investments in healthcare through AB 3129, which proposed stricter transaction oversight and protections against corporate control of medical practices. It critiques the bill’s limited scope, exemptions, and political challenges while positioning it as a case study for future state-level reforms in addressing healthcare consolidation.
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