Trends in the financialisation of outpatient care across OECD countries

This paper summarises the findings of research into the financialisation of outpatient care across OECD countries. It finds that outpatient specialised services have become a recent target of financial institutions active in the healthcare sector, notably across dentistry, ophthalmology, radiology, biology and primary care. While financialisation was reported to be a concern by a majority of responding countries, how financialisation is taking place also varies depending on how health systems are structured. Moreover, despite a growing evidence base around the potential – often negative – impacts of investments by some financial actors, notably private equity firms, countries lack a cohesive picture of the extent to which financial firms have scaled-up investments into their health systems. The paper further presents a set of policy considerations to address financialisation in outpatient care.