<p>The financialization of healthcare is a major social and economic phenomenon of recent decades. Academic literature on the subject is flourishing, focusing mainly on the effects of financialization on the work of healthcare professionals and the strategies of healthcare providers. This article explores the financialization of healthcare organizations in a different way: how is financialization spreading? The article examines the phenomenon in France through the case of medical biologists and radiologists, two professions that have undergone extensive financialization after a first wave of concentration. Today, nearly 80% of private medical laboratories, historically owned by medical biologists, are controlled by six groups, compared with 16% in 2010. Nearly 25% of radiology practices are now owned by a dozen groups backed by investment funds, following the arrival of the first fund in the sector in 2017. To understand why so many organizations have been bought by <i>Private Equity</i> funds and sold by healthcare professionals, the article explores the cases where professionals have chosen <i>to sell</i> and where they have chosen <i>not to sell</i> to explore both what has favored the “success” of financialization and what may resist it. The results highlight intergenerational, territorial, and relational issues within professions and organizations which structure conflicts between partners and benefit the development of financial groups. Conversely, a variety of professional organizations, cooperatives, seeking to propose alternatives and to strengthen the regulation of the sector to preserve their monopoly by challenging the State represent a real force of opposition.</p>

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To sell or not to sell? The financialization of French medical professions: the case of medical biologists and radiologists

  • Antoine Leymarie

摘要

The financialization of healthcare is a major social and economic phenomenon of recent decades. Academic literature on the subject is flourishing, focusing mainly on the effects of financialization on the work of healthcare professionals and the strategies of healthcare providers. This article explores the financialization of healthcare organizations in a different way: how is financialization spreading? The article examines the phenomenon in France through the case of medical biologists and radiologists, two professions that have undergone extensive financialization after a first wave of concentration. Today, nearly 80% of private medical laboratories, historically owned by medical biologists, are controlled by six groups, compared with 16% in 2010. Nearly 25% of radiology practices are now owned by a dozen groups backed by investment funds, following the arrival of the first fund in the sector in 2017. To understand why so many organizations have been bought by Private Equity funds and sold by healthcare professionals, the article explores the cases where professionals have chosen to sell and where they have chosen not to sell to explore both what has favored the “success” of financialization and what may resist it. The results highlight intergenerational, territorial, and relational issues within professions and organizations which structure conflicts between partners and benefit the development of financial groups. Conversely, a variety of professional organizations, cooperatives, seeking to propose alternatives and to strengthen the regulation of the sector to preserve their monopoly by challenging the State represent a real force of opposition.