Bill would limit creation, expansion of doctor-owned hospitals

Last Update: 8/04/2009 6:31 pm

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Bill would limit creation, expansion of doctor-owned hospitals

WICHITA, Kansas – Congress is looking at clamping down on doctor-owned hospitals as part of health care reform. The legislation would make it virtually impossible for new ones to open and keep current ones from expanding.

Because of a lack of regulation regarding opening medical centers, Kansas has over a dozen facilities that would be affected if it becomes law. Galicia Heart Hospital in Wichita is one that
would be affected.

Galicia administrators say the bill is being pushed by the American Hospital Association – the powerful lobbying group representing community hospitals like Wesley and Via Christi. They say the bill would force patients to lose their ability to choose a nicer, newer facility.

“Its hard for the traditional non-for-profit hospital to compete with a new facility all private rooms, located in suburbia with a physician’s vested interest in your health - getting you back home and back to your life quickly,” said Stephen Harris, CEO of Galicia Heart Hospital. “And it’s very hard for a traditional hospital to compete with us.”

Community hospitals say they support the bill because they want to level the playing field – not because they want to crush the competition. Wesley Hospital Chief Operating Officer Sam Serill says it’s doctors who admit patients to hospitals and they’re not going to refer them to facilities like Wesley when the can refer them to a place where they own a share of the business and make money on their referral. Serill says doctor-owned facilities cherry pick patients from the most profitable fields like heart health care.

“You don’t see, for example, a physician-owned children’s hospital or a doctor-owned ob hospital; you see doctor-owned hospitals that frankly get paid much better from a reimbursement stand point than those other hospitals,” Serill said.

The bill has already moved through the House Ways and Means Committee and waits for approval from the full House. The Senate has yet to take a look at it. A Senate committee is expected to review the legislation during its next session.

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