"There was this movie, ‘Wall Street’ with Michael Douglas, right? And he would buy these companies—these airlines—and chop them apart and make money that way. That’s not what private equity is about nowadays."

Gary Herschman, a New Jersey health care attorney who negotiates private equity-backed deals in health care, commenting to radio station WFAE of Charlotte, N.C., for its recent report, “Wall Street’s Buying Up U.S. Health Care—Including in North Carolina”