Ashley Hinson, who claims that healthcare access is one of her top priorities, accepted campaign donations from a private equity firm that gutted a rural Iowa hospital. According to recent reporting from the Iowa Independent, Hinson accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Apollo Global Management, which owns the Ottumwa Regional Health Center (ORHC) in Wapello County. ORHC was a subject of a bipartisan Senate investigation into the impact private equity investment in health care has on providers and patients. That investigation revealed that ORHC was frequently understaffed and created dangerous conditions for patients. All the while, Apollo made millions of dollars in profits from running the hospital while Iowa patients were neglected.
Read more about Ashley Hinson’s financial ties to groups that impair Iowa healthcare.
Hinson took campaign funds from private equity owners of for-profit Ottumwa hospital
- Iowa U.S. Senate candidate and current Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson says improving health care is one of her top priorities. Yet she has accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from executives at a private equity company that was accused in a bipartisan 2025 Senate report of harming patients at an Iowa regional hospital.
- A campaign finance analysis found that Hinson’s campaigns collected about $30,000 in contributions in 2024 and 2025 from executives at Apollo Global Management. The private equity firm, which is headquartered in New York, has owned Lifepoint Health since 2018.
- In January 2025, the then-chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, joined with the committee’s top Republican, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, to announce the results of a 2024 bipartisan committee staff investigation into the impact private equity investment in health care has on providers and patients.
- The report by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Sheldon Whitehouse said that Apollo Global Management and other private equity hospital owners ‘earned investors millions, while patients suffered.’
- The press release said: “ORHC has been repeatedly failed by its private equity-owned operators, including current operator Lifepoint Health, which is owned by funds affiliated with Apollo… The failed leadership of ORHC’s private equity-owned operators has decreased patients’ quality of care and caused the hospital financial harm. … Apollo has made millions in profits as a result of its investment into Lifepoint Health and ORHC’s previous private equity owners, even as the hospital’s operations have suffered.”
Published: May 29, 2026 | Last Modified: Jun 8, 2026