The American Hospital Association says physician-owned hospitals have attempted to "discredit" data from a recent report that claims the facilities "cherry-pick" patients, selecting to treat those with fewer medical complexities and not providing enough emergency services for communities, according to an April 24 press release.
The data, though funded by the AHA and the Federation of American Hospitals, was compiled and analyzed by healthcare consulting firm Dobson and Davanzo.
According to the report, physician-owned hospitals may be more likely to treat patient populations that have fewer comorbidities and complex conditions, are younger in age and less likely to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, according to the data.
These are claims the American Medical Association, and other groups like Physician Led Healthcare for America sharply refute.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, physician-owned hospitals were restricted from expanding capacity, but can request to do so if the facility is a qualified high-Medicaid hospital — something that will now require supporting data and information as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' proposed 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule. The 2024 proposal also seeks to reinstate "program integrity restrictions on the frequency of expansion exception requests, maximum aggregate expansion of a hospital, and location of expansion facility capacity," which were removed after a 2021 rule.
"It is time to face the facts and acknowledge that POHs are not good for patients, communities, the integrity of the Medicare program, or providers who are actually in the business of caring for all patients, 24/7, regardless of their ability to pay or their medical condition," the press statement reads.
However, a spokesperson for the American Medical Association pointed to its March 28 statement to the U.S. House of Representatives and told Becker's that "much of the U.S. hospital market lacks competition and reversing the ACA-imposed ban on new construction or expansion of existing physician-owned hospitals will both stimulate greater competition and provide patients with another option to receive high quality health care services."
Currently, there are about 250 physician-owned hospitals nationwide, which began to form in the early 2000s due to a "a void in physician leadership within hospital management," according to Physician Led Healthcare for America.