Physician-owned hospitals in Texas, such as The Woodlands, Texas-based Victory Healthcare and Dallas-based Forest Park Medical Center, are expanding by working around restrictions put in place by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News.
The PPACA, passed in 2010, prohibited physician-owned hospitals at the time from expanding, and prevented those that did expand from accepting Medicare or Medicaid. According to critics, such as the American Hospital Association, physician-owned hospitals are associated with higher healthcare costs. Another charge levied by critics is that physician-owned hospitals "cherry-pick" the most profitable patients.
However, physician-owned organizations in Texas are thriving despite the PPACA restrictions. Organizations such as Victory Healthcare and Forest Park Medical Center work solely through private insurers and cater to a small patient market.
Victory Healthcare operates specialized surgical centers that are usually 25-bed facilities. It opened facilities in Hurst and Plano in 2011. It recently broke ground on a medical facility in Fort Worth.
Forest Park Medical Center no longer accepts Medicare patients and it has facilities in Dallas, Frisco and Southlake. It is also recently broke ground on a facility in Austin.
The physician-owned model leads to quicker results for patients, said Blake Curd, president-elect of the Physician Hospitals of America, which represents about 235 physician-owned hospitals, according to the report.
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