As private equity invests in child care, Colorado lawmakers seek guardrails

denverpost.com

28 points·ctoth··3 comments

My first (knowing) run in with PE-owned businesses was with my local veterinarian. We’ve used them for years, and always had good experiences with them. Over the past few years, I noticed prices increased substantially, which I attributed to general post-COVID inflation. The last time we were there, one of the new vets gave us this… rehearsed pitch… on why we should pay them $2000 to anesthetize our dog and have his teeth cleaned.

It turns out they were purchased by a PE group right around the big price increases and are now on to various upsell strategies.

I’m only half kidding when I say they should have to put a prominent “Private Equity” sticker on their front door or something to warn the public.

I have no comment on the price, but dental cleanings are very important for dogs. Dental disease is often a silent source of significant pain for dogs. Anesthesia is necessary because dogs won’t sit still for the cleaning.

They used to charge $600 for the service.

The way I found out about them being owned by a PE group is that a friend, who is a radiologist (like for people,) took his dog in and they needed to do an xray. Cost: $500.

What he gets paid for doing a similar study ranges from $6 (for medicaid patients) to around $50.

He asked them directly about being owned by PE and they fessed up.

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