Predicting Private Equity Acquisition of Urology Practices by the Social Vulnerability Index

To understand patterns in private equity (PE) acquisition of urology practices based on the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), a composite, area-level measurement reflecting the following themes: socioeconomic status, household characteristics, racial & ethnic minority status, and housing & transportation type.

We identified PE-owned urology practices by cross-referencing multiple sources. We linked the SVI for census tracts with and surrounding a PE practice (census places). We used multilevel, multivariable logistic regression to predict the probability of PE acquisition for a census tract within a census place based on SVI and its separate themes, adjusted for urban/non-urban designation and physician office density.

We identified 349 census tracts containing at least 1 PE practice and 11,868 census tracts in the same census places with no PE practices. There was no statistically significant association between the composite SVI measurement and PE acquisition (False Discovery Rate (FDR)-adjusted P=.390). In exploratory analysis, we found that census tracts with lower socioeconomic status and more racial and ethnic minorities were associated with a significantly lower probability of PE acquisition, although only to a small degree (FDR-adjusted P=.003 and P=.002, respectively).

Composite social vulnerability index was not associated with PE acquisition of urology practices.