Some of the challenges with private equity investments in healthcare could be having a negative impact on deals in the DSO field, according to Brian Hamilton, the managing director at DuneGlass Capital and chief development officer at Southlake, Texas-based Allied OMS.
Mr. Hamilton recently joined the Becker's Dental + DSO Review podcast to discuss the role of private equity in dentistry.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What are some of the biggest issues you're following in dentistry right now?
Brian Hamilton: One of the biggest issues I'm following is this inaccurate picture that's being painted about private equity in healthcare by the media. There's some regulators or so-called experts who I think mistakenly extend the ill effects of investments that have occurred in hospitals and health systems, or even in payers, which is definitely different then the models of investment and partnership at the practice level that certainly we believe in at DuneGlass and a lot of the other folks out there in this space are utilizing today.
Q: How did this negative depiction of private equity get started?
BH: There have been a lot of challenges with some of the investors and just operators in general, whether that's doctors, private investors [or] professional managers. A lot of that has come out and played negatively in the media, and that's a very different model than we use at DuneGlass, [which is] really more of a partnership model where the doctor stays in control. So it's been negatively depicted and, unfortunately, probably having some negative effects in the DSO space.
I think what folks read as well as the folks they know who may have partnered with different people either within dentistry or any other medical specialties is going to give them a perspective. Generally speaking, what I always talk to folks about is, talk to some of our doctors [and] understand what their life looks like now. Have there been improvements? What's different? What's the same? And see if it's something that makes sense for them long term.