Community for Profit – A series investigating Missoula’s private equity-funded hospital.

After being sold 10 years ago this month and going through a series of mergers, Missoula’s Community Medical Center, which had operated as a nonprofit for decades, became part of Lifepoint Health in 2018. Lifepoint is a large, for-profit healthcare chain owned by private-equity giant Apollo Global Management. Today, Community is one of 220 hospitals under Apollo’s umbrella.

This series, by freelance reporter Michael Cast, tells the story of the hospital’s transition from nonprofit to for-profit and what that’s meant for employees and patient care, especially in the years after the pandemic.

Over the course of months, Cast spoke to more than 20 current and former Community Medical Center employees who detailed concerns with the way the administration and Lifepoint ran the hospital. Their accounts reflect growing concern at the national level — including in the U.S. Senate — over private equity’s effects on the U.S. healthcare system.

By Michael Cast