He said he believes the health reform laws were passed because critics of physician-owned hospitals have several misconceptions about the effectiveness of the facilities. “Now we are a severely limited industry,” Mr. Gosney said. “The Obama healthcare team thought that if hospitals employed more physicians and they were just salaried employees, they wouldn’t have the perverse incentive of ordering more tests and surgeries. But it’s just human nature — when somebody’s running their own business, they have a reputation in the community, they’re more productive and efficient and quality focused.”
He said physician-owned hospitals have a few options going forward if they want to battle the law: file a lawsuit claiming that the law is unconstitutional, tackle the law through the legislative process or explore alternative physician ownership structures. “The reason doctors get involved with physician-owned hospitals is so they can better serve practices and patients,” Mr. Gosney said. “[We won’t be able to produce anything] quite as satisfying, clean and good for the patient as
physicians owning facilities, but some kind of agreement where the physician would still have a vested interest in the success of the facility.”
In a 2010 newsletter from PHA, he said, “As an industry and as individuals, we built our hospitals and took enormous risks because we believed there was a better, safer and more humane way to run hospitals. We believed and continue to believe that physician ownership of hospitals is the best way to achieve these goals. Despite the efforts of PHA and your continued individual and hospital efforts, if physician ownership is limited in the future, where do we go from here? How do we continue to provide the very best hospital care for our patients?”
He said physician hospitals have an obligation to their communities to become the “fast fish that eats the slow fish” in the healthcare industry. In order to stay alive, physician hospitals must focus their energy on increasing efficiency, quality and customer service.
Read more on notable hospital leaders:
–Hospital Leader to Know: Andra Price of Mercy Health Partners
