The Fight Against Physician Owned Hospitals

Physician-Owned Hospitals (POHs) are for-profit hospitals that are both run by and owned by doctors. They are usually based on a specialty service, such as Cardiology or Orthopedic Surgery. The idea behind POHs is that because they specialize in one area, they are better in that area than anyone else. They have some issues that need to be addressed in terms of regulations, but mainstream Hospital Organizations are lobbying for policies that could eliminate POHs altogether.

Traditional Hospitals are regulated both by the federal government and by state governments. Because they are a newer phenomenon, POHs are not yet regulated in the same way that traditional hospitals are in every state. Problems have been cited, such as inadequate emergency care and staffing. In any hospital, especially one where surgeries are performed, medical emergencies will arise and any entity calling itself a “hospital” should be able to handle those emergencies. Certain aspects of hospitals are regulated federally, but not all. Facilities that participate in Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Care are heavily regulated, but POHs that are not adequately regulated in their states are falling through the cracks. The problems are difficult to pin down also because they are not required to report things like staph infections and other statistics that could be used to judge their effectiveness or track potential problems.

POHs are generally small and one of the complaints coming from the Hospital Lobby is that POHs are “cherry picking” healthy, insured patients. While this may be a valid concern, their claim that POHs are providing too much competition does not seem to be valid. The latter point may be why the Hospital Lobby is fighting so hard against them.

Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley, reportedly recipients of huge sums from the Hospital Lobby are, coincidently, fighting the hardest against POHs. Obviously, there does need to be adequate regulations on all hospitals, but Baucus and Grassley are taking the fight to another level. They have tried, and presumably still are trying to prevent any more POHs to be developed and they are also currently trying to prevent them from participating from the Medicare program, which, ironically, would subject them to more regulation than they would otherwise have.

The bottom line is that there is a well documented problem with Physician Owned Hospitals’ emergency services that needs attention in the form of more regulation and oversight. Senators Baucus and Grassley, however, are going too far by reacting to their benefactors and using the issue to attempt to wipe out the competition.

http://acutecareinc.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/update-baucus-grassley-slam-physician-owned-hospitals/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93681.php
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_02/42cfr482_02.htmlhttp://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/07/physician_hospitals.html