There’s a reason private-equity firms have invested in companies staffing hospital emergency departments, said Richard M. Scheffler, professor of health economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The money in the hospital is in the ER,” he told NBC News. “It is the biggest net generator and a huge profit center for almost all hospitals.” The problem is, he said, “ER doctors are being told how to practice medicine” by financial managers.

Doctor fired from ER warns about effect of for-profit firms on U.S. health care