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Physician-owned hospitals unfairly targeted by health reform, group argues

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Atul Gawande
Universal Health Services
Physician Hospitals of America
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Doctors Hospital At Renaissance

Poor, beleaguered McAllen: Did you ever suspect that you'd become the focus of the national debate over healthcare costs? Well, like it or not, the smallish Texas town has become the rallying point for reformers, who argue that it's high cost structure highlights everything that's wrong with the current healthcare system.

Not surprisingly, McAllen is also a battleground, with some parties being targeted as the villains in the affair. That's just what happened to physician-owned hospitals there, according to the trade group Physician Hospitals of America. The group just issued what can only be described as an indignant press release, noting that a current federal investigation of reimbursement hanky-panky in McAllen did not involve the town's physician-owned facilities.

It appears that since June 2009, when Atul Gawande wrote an article on McAllen and cost control that appeared in the The New Yorker, the PHA has been fighting arguments that physician-owned hospitals were to blame for the town's high costs of care. Now, the group is fighting hard to kill provisions in the House and Senate health reform bills that would prohibit doctors from referring Medicare enrollees to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest. Existing hospitals in operation before November 2009 could be grandfathered in, though terms differ between the two houses.

That's just unfair, suggests the PHA. The group notes Universal Health Services, not the town's sole physician-owned facility--Doctors Hospital at Renaissance--was fined $27.5 million by the DOJ, accused of providing kickbacks to physicians to get them to refer to its hospitals. Given such happenings, it makes no sense to target physician-owned facilities for special treatment, argues PHA leader Molly Sandvig, JD.

To get a feel for PHA's argument:
- read this press release

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Physician-owned hospitals: A conflict of interest?
U.S. Reps give boost to physician-owned hospitals

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USPS/IRS Health Care

If health care is the problem, insurance is not the cause and government is not the answer.

Of those "50 million," that lack insurance there were 45,000 who died without health care.

WITH health care, 98,000 died FROM health care because of malpractice.

The question is do we want to trust that largest corporation in the world, the U.S. Government. Do not expect house calls anytime soon.

We have seen how well the government delivers on its promises and its bureaucracies pursue the money without giving us benefits on so many levels.

Imagine another 111 bureacracies that only ultimately must listen to the Secretary of the Treasury - another "service" of which is the IRS.

http://theprogressivecapitalist.blogspot.com/2009/10/affordable-health-care-for-america-act.html

That blog of mine above has several .pdf connections (HR. 3962 and two summaries, a few videos, and page references for new taxes and other mandates).

If you cannot use the link, google "Progressive Capitalist H.R. 3962."

If you believe the promises of this bill, you have to deal with the lie that it fosters competition with a government option called the "Public Option" and establishes the government as a monopoly making its own rules.
Don't worry. You'll run out of "rich" soon enough.

We have at least a $12 trillion economy of which at least $1.8 trillion is spent on health care.
If you read the bill, there are plenty of opportunities to soak the middle class, if you do not mind the 1.6 million made jobless.

REPUBLICAN Affordable Health Care For America Act
MAKING HEALTH Care Affordable For EVERY AmeriCAN

http://thehill.com/images/stories/whitepapers/pdf/ainsfloor_01_xml.pdf

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