The policy research brief, which was released Apr. 23 by the Washington-based center, reviewed healthcare markets in Indianapolis, Little Rock, Ark., and Phoenix. Acute care hospitals are weathering competition from specialty hospitals by employing recruited specialists or contracting with them to provide on-call specialty coverage, according to the study.
Congress restricted the growth of specialty hospitals through an 18-month moratorium imposed in 2003, and CMS adopted severity adjusted payments to reduce perceived patient cherry picking by specialty hospitals.
Molly Sandvig, executive director of the Physician Hospitals of America, says the study refutes contentions that physician-owned hospitals harm the ability of acute care hospitals to provide care to the poor and uninsured.
“The results of the recent Center for Studying Health System Change study further proves that physician-owned hospitals have a positive, not negative, effect on healthcare in the communities they serve,” says Ms. Sandvig. “These results should silence any remaining criticism from opponents of physician-owned hospitals.”
While the Center said the study did not necessarily reflect national trends, it is indicative of the ways community hospitals have responded. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded the study.
Read the Center for Studying Health System Change’s specialty/general hospital study.
