As Health Reform Struggles, Ban on Physician-Owned Hospitals Faces Uncertain Future

Tags: health reform | Molly Sandvig | physician-owned hospitals

As the health reform bill, with its ban on physician-owned hospitals, flounders in Congress, officials at the Physician Hospitals of America are cautiously optimistic that the ban may not take place.

With the election of Republican Scott Brown, an opponent of the health reform bill, as the new U.S. senator from Massachusetts, "the process of health reform as been turned on its head," says PHA lobbyist Randy Fenninger. Democrats now lack a 60-vote majority to withstand a Republican filibuster and pass a final House-Senate version of the reform bill.

However, PHA officials are advising investors with shovel-ready projects to hold off for at least a few weeks as the fate of the bill becomes clearer. Under the Senate version of the bill, the ban would go in effect on Aug. 1, not enough time for a project that breaks ground now to be fully up and running.  

The group is also delaying plans to file a lawsuit challenging the ban, although lawyers for the group continue to draft documents in case they are needed.   

Mr. Fenninger says Democratic leaders appear to have rejected the option of pushing the reform bill through the Senate before Mr. Brown takes his seat, which is expected to occur in about two weeks.

The PHA lobbyist cautions that the legislative landscape is still fuzzy. The impact of Mr. Brown's victory is "yet to be determined," Mr. Fenninger says. "Until this bill has been declared dead, we have to watch it."

PHA Executive Director Molly Sandvig says the ban could be attached to other upcoming bills, such as legislation needed to avert an automatic 21 percent cut in physician fees under Medicare, which was to be part of the health reform bill.

Ms. Sandvig says one positive outcome of PHA's constant lobbying campaign against the ban has been a heightened awareness of physician-owned hospitals in Congress. "We have champions that we never thought we had," she says.

However, Ms. Sandvig cautioned, "we still have many enemies," and she advised members to continue their grass-roots lobbying.  

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