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Private-Equity Firms Are Buying Out Medical Practices and Raising Prices for Americans: Study: The study focused on private-equity ‘roll ups’ of private physician practices in which investors bought up several offices in a city to consolidate a significant share of the market to form larger companies, allowing the new owners to increase treatment prices. The study further noted that health care costs rose in 80 percent of medical specialist areas after private-equity firms bought out existing practices. Where these entities took over more than 30 percent of a local market, gastroenterology, dermatology, and obstetrics and gynecology costs increased by double digits.