A bill calling for the establishment of physician-owned hospitals would improve access to healthcare in rural areas, the American Medical Association wrote in an Aug. 14 article.
The Physician Led and Rural Access to Quality Care Act would allow the creation of certain physician-owned hospitals, as outlined in the article.
Physicians would be allowed to open a hospital in a rural area that is a 35-mile drive or farther from another hospital, or a 15-mile drive in areas with secondary roads or mountainous terrain, according to the bill. Existing physician-owned hospitals would also be able to expand services.
The bill proposes changes to the Affordable Care Act, which effectively halted expansions of existing physician-owned hospitals and prevented the opening of new ones, the AMA wrote.
Physician-owned hospitals grew from fewer than 70 across the U.S. in the early 2000s to about 250 by 2010, according to the organization.
"That growth was spurred by demand for general acute care hospitals in some markets and opportunities to boost clinical operations and surgical procedures through facility specialization," the AMA wrote.
Michael Burgess, MD, Tony Cardenas, Morgan Griffith and Vincent Gonzalez introduced the bill in the House on July 11.
The AMA also supports the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act, which would remove the ban on new or expanded physician-owned hospitals, according to the article.