Newly passed health care bill forces 60 new Hospitals construction cancelled  

Gee, doctors referring high income patients to hospitals they own? Here's the entire article in case anyone would like all of the information instead of just the part you cherry picked.

(CNSNews.com) - The new health care overhaul law - that promised increased
access and efficiency in health care - will prevent doctor-owned hospitals
from adding more rooms and more beds.

These hospitals are advertised as less bureaucratic and more focused on
doctor-patient decision making. However, larger corporate hospitals say
doctor-owned facilities discriminate in favor of high-income patients and
refer business to themselves.

The new rules single out physician-owned hospitals, making new
physician-owned projects ineligible to receive payments for Medicare and
Medicaid patients.

Existing doctor-owned hospitals will be grandfathered in to get government
funds for patients but must seek permission from the Department of Health
and Human Services to expand.

The get the department's permission, a doctor-owned hospital must be in a
county where population growth is 150 percent of the population growth of
the state in the last five years; impatient admissions must be equal to all
hospitals located in the county; the bed occupancy rate must not be greater
than the state average, and it must be located in a state where hospital bed
capacity is less than the national average.

These rules are under Title VI, Section 6001 of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act. The provision is titled "Physician Ownership and Other
Transparency - Limitations on Medicare Exceptions to the Prohibition on
Certain Physician Referral for Hospitals."

More than 60 doctor-owned hospitals across the country that were in the
development stage will be canceled, said Molly Sandvig, executive director
of Physician Hospitals of America (PHA).

"That's a lot of access to communities that will be denied," Sandvig told
CNSNews.com. "The existing hospitals are greatly affected. They can't grow.
They can't add beds. They can't add rooms. Basically, it stifles their
ability to change and meet market needs. This is really an unfortunate thing
as well, because we are talking about some of the best hospitals in the
country."

The organization says physician-owned hospitals have higher patient
satisfaction, greater control over medical decisions for patients and
doctor, better quality care and lower costs. Further, physician-owned
hospitals have an average 4-1 patient-to-nurse ratio, compared to the
national average of 8-1 for general hospitals.

Further, these 260 doctor-owned hospitals in 38 states provide 55,000 jobs,
$2.4 billion in payroll and pay $509 million in federal taxes, according to
the PHA.

In one ironic aspect, President Barack Obama's two largest legislative
achievements clashed. The Hammond Community Hospital in North Hammond, Ind.,
got $7 million in bond money from the federal stimulus act in 2009. It will
likely be scrapped because of the new rules on physician-owned hospitals,
according to the Post-Tribune newspaper in Merrillville, Ind.

These hospitals have long been a target of the American Hospital
Association, which represents corporate-owned hospitals as well as
non-profit hospitals.

An AHA study from 2008 says that physician-owned hospitals "lessen patient
access to emergency and trauma case;" "damage the financial health of
full-service hospitals and lead to cutbacks in service;" "are not more
efficient than full service community hospitals;" "use physician-owners to
steer patients;" "cherry pick the most profitable patients;" and
"provide
limited or no emergency services."

Meanwhile, one AHA fact sheet asserts that physician-owned orthopedic and
surgical hospitals costs are 20 percent to 30 percent higher than average
hospitals. Further, these hospitals just lead to higher profits for doctors,
the AHA asserts.

"We don't cherry pick patients, period, end of story. We take patients based
on their need for care, not on their ability to pay," Sandvig said. "It [the
health care reform] puts control outside the hand of physicians and patients
and into bureaucrats' hands really.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is one of many
organizations suing to have the law declared unconstitutional on the grounds
that the federal government cannot compel someone to buy a product.

While the provision on physician hospitals is not part of the lawsuit, it
will affect it, Dr. said Jane Orient, AAPS executive director.

"If the law is declared unconstitutional, then the prohibition is part of
the bill," Orient told CNSNews.com. "There are vested interests in getting
rid of physician-owned hospitals because they do a better job and are more
affordable."

The provision in the legislation and efforts opposing these hospitals can be
simply explained from Sandvig's view.

"It's anti-competitive. I think it's pretty clear," Sandvig said. "We're a
model that makes sense that's affecting innovation. We're trying to do
something better than it has been done. Anytime you do that, there's going
to be a clash between the existing and the new. Unfortunately, it's a real
David and Goliath battle."

If they don't mind earning less, they can go here, ken...:)

We do need lots of doctors here, especially the good ones.

I have read most of this bill and it is more of a crime then a good thing. So much of it is bravado which will not help our nation. We have been falling behind other nations for years and this bill will make it worse.

There are so many changes in this bill/law that are nothing less than detrimental to our health care, especially seniors.

It appears to me that the AHA had the better lobbying effort (more money in the pot) than the PHA when it came to writing up/debating the recently passed health-care law. A study by the AHA saying that physician-owned hospitals...doesn't convince me that we don't need all kinds of hospitals, regardless of ownership...corporations or physicians.