Farm bill would restrict MD-owned specialty hospitals
In a piece of gamesmanship worthy of Capitol Hill, legislators behind a pending agriculture bill have slipped in a provision that would ban physician ownership of specialty hospitals. Versions of the measure already had been passed by the House and Senate without such provisions, but the ban was added during the final process of reconciling the House and Senate bills. The notion is that this would somehow help to pay the costs of the $280 million farm bill by generating some $2.4 billion in new money. (It appears that this involves some form of Medicare savings.) The AMA, of course, is hopping mad, particularly given the last-minute nature of the ban's inclusion. The AHA and the Federation of American Hospitals support the provision, not surprisingly given their consistent opposition to competition from such hospitals.
To learn more about this bill:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)
- read this statement from the AMA
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By Randy Fenninger | Posted 10:05am | April 22, 2008
As the lobbyist for Physician Hospitals of America, the national association of MD owned hospitals, I wanted to update yesterday's story on the farm bill conference. Under pressure from other House and Senate members, the Senate has taken the issue off the table so it does not look like it will be in the farm bill conference report. However, opponents of physician ownership will certainly try to add it somewhere else, probably on a supplemental appropriations bill.
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