The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons is working with members of the Senate and House of Representatives to advance legislation that would lift restrictions on physician-owned hospitals.
The Affordable Care Act placed a moratorium on physician-owned hospitals when it was passed in 2010; the legislation banned new hospitals from opening and existing hospitals from expanding. Despite the ban, several legacy physician-owned hospitals continue to operate in the U.S. and their results make a compelling argument for their survival.
The British Medical Journal published an article based on an independent study of 95 hospitals in the U.S. and found "no clinically or statistically significant difference in patient mid between physician-owned hospitals and non-physician owned hospitals," and 25 percent are located in medically underserved areas.
Despite being a small percentage of the hospitals in the U.S., physician-owned hospitals represent more than half of the hospitals that received top ratings on the HCAHPS survey results reported in February 2017; 38 of the 57 hospitals where 90 percent of the patients rated overall care at a nine or 10 were physician-owned.
Several existing physician-owned hospitals focus on orthopedics, and AAOS is working with Reps. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, and Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas as well as Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., to advance new legislation repealing the moratorium.
"Physician-owned hospitals allow orthopedic surgeons — and other physicians — who know patient care best, to be more involved in some of the day-to-day decision-making of the hospitals. Limiting the ability of dedicated physicians to open or expand facilities to treat their patients penalizes these patients who would otherwise benefit from this valuable care," according to an AAOS statement issued July 5.
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