The American Hospital Association is opposing a bill that would lift the ban on the establishment of physician-owned hospitals in certain rural areas and permit expansion nationwide.
The association opposes the Physician Led and Rural Access to Quality Care Act (HR 2191) because it is “misguided legislation that would skew the healthcare marketplace in favor of physicians who self-refer patients to hospitals they own and would destabilize rural health care while failing to improve access to quality care,” according to a March 25 association letter.
The association said the bill could result in physicians self-referring only the healthiest and best insured patients to their hospitals, gaming the Medicare program and potentially harming sicker and lower-income patients. They said the practice could also inflate healthcare costs and drain resources from community hospitals who depend on a balance of services and patients.
The bill was introduced by Reps. Michael Burgess, MD, R-Texas, Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., Morgan Griffith, R-Va., and Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, and is supported by the American Medical Association. According to the AMA, the bill wouldn’t repeal the current ban, only create smaller changes and a narrow exemption for new physician-owned hospitals that meet specific criteria.
