Healthcare Private Equity Trends and Innovation with Amber Walsh of McGuireWoods LLP 2-26-26

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Becker Business (Becker Private Equity Podcast)
Host: Scott Becker
Guest: Amber Walsh, Executive Committee, McGuireWoods LLP
Date: February 26, 2026
Episode: Healthcare Private Equity Trends and Innovation with Amber Walsh of McGuireWoods LLP

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Episode Overview

This episode features Amber Walsh, a leading healthcare private equity attorney and conference chair at McGuireWoods. She joins host Scott Becker to discuss current trends, innovation, and hot topics in healthcare private equity (PE). The conversation provides an inside look at the upcoming Healthcare Private Equity Conference, highlighting the newly structured agenda, emerging investment themes, and keynotes that address the intersection of healthcare, investment, and technology. The discussion also covers timely PE investor interests in tech-enabled services vs. traditional care, the expanding “healthcare at home” market, and the crucial issue of rural healthcare access.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. New Conference Agenda Structure

• This year, the McGuireWoods Healthcare PE Conference is organized into four distinct content tracks, reflecting the evolving interests of investors and industry professionals.
  • Life Sciences Track:
    • A response to increasing client activity and demand; covers everything from clinical research to manufacturing supply chains, biopharma financing, and dealmaking.
    • Amber attributes the growth in life sciences sessions to intentional hiring of skilled attorneys to meet client needs.
  • Traditional Provider Services:
    • Focuses on perennial favorites for investors—ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), dental/DSOs, concierge medicine—areas which continue to evolve.
    • “There’s new takes every year on it because those continue to be areas of focus.” (Amber Walsh, 03:18)
  • Innovation Track:
    • New for this year, with sessions such as solving rural healthcare access challenges; combines policy, investment, and practice innovations.
  • Operational and Deal-Making Excellence:
    • Focused on platform strategy (e.g., PPM strategies), private credit expansion for healthcare, and ways to build and grow successful healthcare investments.
    • “I’m really excited about the way we’ve…organized it in a little bit of a different fashion but really geared towards what investors are most interested in right now.” (Amber Walsh, 04:55)

2. Rural Healthcare Investment and Policy

• Scott Becker and Amber discuss the substantial funding earmarked for rural healthcare and how this has prompted a flurry of activity among investors and healthcare organizations.
  • “There’s a bit of an arms race to chase that money… let’s just hope it has some efficient impact that actually does something to move the needle…” (Scott Becker, 05:25)
  • Amber notes that innovation and investment are central to addressing persistent rural access challenges—one of the highlights in their Innovation Track.

3. Expanding Definition of Healthcare at Home

• Amber is particularly interested in the evolution of “healthcare at home,” which now spans well beyond traditional home health and hospice.
  • Key Developments:
    • Home hemodialysis (since the 1960s) as a model for other chronic care in the home (e.g., respiratory therapy, DME companies, home PT/OT).
    • Hospital-at-home models and a proliferation of digital health tools—including remote monitoring and telehealth—to support home-based care.
    • The sector now includes varying degrees of clinical involvement, from intensive medical services to personal care (e.g., bathing, meal prep).
  • Amber highlights PE’s interest across this full spectrum—from tech-enabled solutions to care platforms to personal care assistants.
  • “That ‘healthcare at home’ umbrella really covers all of those areas and is of interest to a wide swath of investors…” (Amber Walsh, 08:56)

4. Investor Appetite: Patient-Touching vs. Tech-Enabled Models

• Scott asks whether investors are shying away from “patient-touching” services (with reimbursement risk) in favor of less regulated, technology-based models.
  • Amber clarifies that while this perception persists, deal volume suggests sustained investor interest in traditional, reimbursement-driven home care.
  • “You just have different investors looking for different things… you may have a traditional home healthcare and hospice company now taking on this personal care solution… Different investors just have different appetites, different theses.” (Amber Walsh, 10:17)

5. Keynote Speakers and Broader Themes

• Keynote 1: Michael Lewis
  • Renowned author (“Moneyball,” “Blindside”) known for making complex subjects accessible and entertaining.
  • Amber expresses genuine excitement as a longtime fan:
    • “I have been absolutely enamored with his work and… think he’s going to be fabulous.” (Amber Walsh, 12:29)
• Keynote 2: Abigail Wynn
  • Harvard-trained, Silicon Valley-based AI expert and advisor on fairness in AI.
  • Will address both healthcare and non-healthcare implications of AI policy and investment.
  • “She couldn’t be more perfect for this moment…” (Amber Walsh, 12:54)
  • Abigail also joins the “Women in Private Equity” breakfast event at the conference.

6. Market Sentiment and Outlook

• Amber notes a sense of “great change” and renewed optimism among investors, with an uptick in deal activity and a cautious yet positive investment climate.
  • “People are enthusiastic about investments, feeling pretty good about the cautious uptick in deal activity.” (Amber Walsh, 13:45)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Organizing the Conference:

  • “This is really a fun and kind of different way to organize our breakout sessions at the conference this year… and I kind of love it…”
    — Amber Walsh, 02:06

• On Rural Healthcare Funding:

  • “Let’s just hope it has some efficient impact that actually does something to move the needle on rural healthcare…”
    — Scott Becker, 05:37

• On Healthcare at Home:

  • “What it has evolved is… all of the, not just the telehealth platforms and the remote patient monitoring, but new digital health tools… so we’re going to be talking about all of those things.”
    — Amber Walsh, 07:59

• On Investor Interest:

  • “You just have different investors looking for different things… Different investors just have different appetites, different theses.”
    — Amber Walsh, 10:56

• On AI and the Conference Speaker:

  • “She couldn’t be more perfect for this moment which of course is why we were really interested to have her come and join us to just help us understand what might be coming.”
    — Amber Walsh, 13:00

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Important Timestamps

• 01:00 – Scott Becker introduces Amber Walsh and previews episode topics
• 02:05 – Amber explains the four-track conference structure
• 05:19 – Discussion of the rural healthcare bill and its investment implications
• 06:23 – Amber dives into the “healthcare at home” panel and sector trends
• 09:45 – Are investors shying away from “patient-touching” businesses?
• 12:25 – Amber discusses the keynote speakers and the “Women in Private Equity” breakfast
• 13:45 – Amber comments on market sentiment and the outlook for PE in healthcare

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Closing Thoughts

Amber Walsh offers a practitioner’s and investor’s inside view on what’s shaping healthcare private equity in 2026: a heightened focus on innovation, patient access, and operational excellence; continuing appetite for both digital and traditional care models; and the integration of major themes like AI, rural health, and gender diversity in dealmaking. The episode serves as both a preview of the industry’s leading conference and a valuable temperature check on where healthcare dealmaking stands today.

Transcript

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[Scott Becker]

This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. We're joined today by Amber Walsh from the executive committee of McGuire Woods. She's a lawyer that also helps to cheer the McGuire woods health care Private Equity Conference. She works at the intersection of health care and private equity. One of the things we're going to talk about today and we'll tie it into the Health Care Private Equity Conference that's coming up April 29th to 30th in Chicago is this year. Amber and team have divided the agenda up into four different distinct sections. A lot based on what's happening in the world of healthcare, investing in private equity and a lot more. We'll also talk a little bit about that topic that Amber finds most interesting currently from her perspective that people are talking about a lot in private equity and investing. Amber, let me turn it over to you and tell us about the sections and the segments that you're looking at. None of that then translates into the agenda, but more so at the top level. What are the big sections you're looking at? Segments you're looking at.

[Amber Walsh]

Yeah, this is really a fun and kind of different way to organize our breakout sessions at the conference this year. We have always had a couple of big name keynoters. We have that again this year. I'm very excited about Michael Lewis. I'm a bit of a fan girl of Moneyball Blindside. Love the keynoters and the dental sessions but the panel breakouts, we've organized differently in different years. And I'll have to give a lot of credit to our partner, Holly Buckley, for her vision on how we broke it out this year. And I kind of love it, which is we have a full life sciences track, and that's not that new and unusual. Except for us, that's been a real developing area of intentional growth within the group of hiring some really skilled life sciences attorneys in response to our investing client needs and kind of the development of the industry. And so we're now able to actually have a great complete life sciences track that includes things from clinical research to the life sciences manufacturing supply chain trends in biopharma financing and deal making specifically. So I'm excited about that track, kind of that area. Then we have what is for us a more traditional track. It's the traditional provider services. And so we have some repeat panels that are perennial favorites that continue to be important areas for investors, but have evolved a lot over the past 20 years. And so we have ASCs as a key ancillary investment, and dental and DSO and concierge. And so while that sounds a little bit traditional, there's new takes every year on it because those continue to be areas of focus. But then the other two tracks are where we've done something new this year and there are fun. So one is a complete innovation track, and we have a panel specifically devoted to solving the rural access challenges and innovative solutions to that. That's become a real big theme, I think, both from a health care policymaking within government, but also from an investment standpoint on how you can solve some of these rural access challenges. So that's one of the topics in our innovation panel track. And then we have an operational excellence and deal making excellence panel that's focusing on things like PPM strategy, not PPM deals, but strategies for growth and improvement, private credit expansion for healthcare platforms. So I'm really excited about the way we've kind of organized it in a little bit of a different fashion, but really geared towards what investors are most interested right now.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you. And it is fascinating. You mentioned the rural health care. With this money coming from the rural health care bill, $50 billion, it seems like there's a bit of an arms race to chase that money and figure out how to put that to use. And it's, it's very unclear as to how it's going to work, but I know lots of people applying to try and get hold of that money and find ways to utilize it well. But, but fascinating. How legislation does turn into a chase. I don't want to call it a money grab, but for that opportunity because it's a lot of money being thrown into rural healthcare and let's just hope it has some efficient impact that actually does something to move the needle on rural health care. I think many of us are some skepticism, some cynicism as to how it's actually going to help because you can't seem to relocate doctors and caregivers to those areas. But let's hope that this will help help to solve some of the rural healthcare problems. Talk Amber about There's a couple subjects that I know you're particularly excited about and that your investors are talking about a lot. Tell us about a couple of those.

[Amber Walsh]

I am really excited about and I am not participating in this panel. It's one of our other partners that will lead the panel. I'm very excited to go and listen to some of our clients and the other experts. But one in particular is healthcare at home. And we don't mean the traditional home health and hospice, although of course that is one aspect. But the focus of this panel is the huge evolution of different types of healthcare at home. And so we will talk on that panel about some super, super traditional healthcare at home that maybe some people don't even realize has occurred in the home for as long as it has. And I'll use home hemodialysis as an example. There have been home hemodialysis technology and service providers since the mid-60s. That's been kind of an up and down trend. But what has followed from that is some similar models are take other chronic conditions. So respiratory therapy we I hope to have, we're still securing this. I hope to have a panelist who is with a home respiratory therapy company that has both a DME component to it, but also has therapists that go into the home for COPD and some other very significant respiratory therapy needs. And then of course you have all the other different therapies, home pt, home ot. But what it has elaborated or I guess evolved is a better word in this area. You also have hospital at home and then you have all the technologies that support this home based health care. So all of the, not just the telehealth platforms and the remote patient monitoring, but you have new digital health tools that permit clinicians to kind of keep a closer eye on the patients in between the visits. And so we're going to be talking about all of those things. And I think those are really, really interesting areas where you have investors who are Interested in tech enabled services, investors who are interested in traditional patient touching reimbursement heavy areas and then those who like to do the even lighter healthcare light like the personal care, assistance for daily living things like bathing, dressing, meal prep, et cetera. That healthcare at home umbrella really covers all of those areas and is of interest. A wide swath of investors who have different levels of comfort in different parts of health care and I think also are interested in coming together to talk as investor groups about how you combine and do some unique value based care initiatives that are going on in this space. So that is one that I am particularly excited about and I'm glad I'm not leading it because I'm not the expert, but I certainly am fascinated and interested in learning more.

[Scott Becker]

You would mention a distinction there between some of the techno technological solutions and efforts versus actual patient touching efforts. Are you seeing a bias right now towards private equity investors shying away from patient touching directly and being more in the technology in other fields? Or is it a whole mix out there?

[Amber Walsh]

You know, people have been saying that for a while that there's a reluctance, a bias against the reimbursement risk type investments, the patient touching investments that actually have to bill and collect from payers. I've been hearing that for years, but I don't know if it's actually true. And certainly if you look in the deal making landscape at the more traditional home based care, I mean last year and this year already, the amount of deals that are being reported in the space, it still continues to stay pretty robust. So my belief is that you just have different investors looking for different things and the fact that they're now you have platforms talking to each other more because of some of the value based care opportunities and some of the. You have some different types of platform creation where you may have a traditional home health care and hospice company now taking on and building out or acquiring this personal care solution which really doesn't require licensed clinicians to do the bathing and the meal prep. You have them kind of investing in or doing these contractual partnerships together. It tells me that you still have just as much interest from investors in the different kind of areas like that. Different investors just have different appetites, different theses.

[Scott Becker]

Fascinating. So you're still seeing a lot of patient, direct patient touching investments and some of those combined with technology. And obviously there's still these huge orthopedic platforms and other platforms around patient touching that seem to be going quite well. So that's a, that's a fascinating perspective. And so no thank you for that and Amber, anything else? I know Michael Lewis is speaking, the author of Moneyball and fascinating journalists. He's written so much and such a great writer. I know we have a great private equity leader speaking as one of the keynotes. Anything else you particularly want to point out about healthcare, private equity or things you're seeing or the conference?

[Amber Walsh]

Yeah, I will actually mention our second keynoter. So yes, I'm very excited about Michael Lewis. I have been absolutely enamored with his work and I think have read or listened to every single thing that he has written. It just suits my sensibilities perfectly for entertainment and learning. I think he's going to be fabulous. But I'm also really excited about our day two keynoter and it's a woman named Abigail Wynn and she is also happens to be an author but she is an AI expert and she's been advising a wide swath of both healthcare and non healthcare investors, companies, users, policymakers for many, many years. Harvard trained, I think Silicon Valley based. And she talks a lot about fairness in AI which is a whole really dense and interesting topic. And I think she couldn't be more perfect for this moment which of course is why we were really interested to have her come and join us to just help us understand what might be coming. So I'm very excited about that and she is kindly joining us for our Women in Private Equity breakfast which is always a big piece of the conference where the women who are there and work in the private equity and finance industry get to have our moment together. So excited for her to join us there, but just overall looking forward to it and I feel like this is such a time of great change. People are enthusiastic about investments, feeling pretty good about the cautious uptick in deal activity. So I am looking forward to it.

[Scott Becker]

Fantastic. Amber, just a extraordinary work by yourself and the team and Holly Buckley, fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing some of this on the Becker Private Equity and Becker Business podcast and can't wait to see you at the end of April at the Healthcare Private Equity conference. Thank you so much.

[Amber Walsh]

Thank you.

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