The American Hospital Association (AHA) and Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) released a statement last week to urge Congress to oppose any legislation that would repeal current law limiting self-referral to physician-owned hospitals.

Congress enacted legislation in 2010 that prohibits physician-owned hospitals that opened after Dec. 31, 2010, from billing Medicare or Medicaid. However, it allowed existing physician-owned hospitals in operation at the time of enactment to continue to bill these government payers.

Numerous efforts have been made since 2010 to repeal the ban, but the AHA/FAH release pointed to data in a 2017 study that found physician-owned hospitals:

• Cherry-pick patients by avoiding Medicaid and uninsured patients
• Treat fewer medically complex patients
• Enjoy margins nearly three times those of non-physician owned hospitals
• Provide few emergency services – an important community benefit
• Are penalized for unnecessary readmissions at 10 times the rate of non-physician owned hospitals

The full statement can be found here. For more information, contact Mike Dietrich at THA, 615-401-7459.