Sen. Lankford reintroduces bill to remove Obamacare ban on physician-owned hospitals

Posted on: 11/22/19

U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) this week reintroduced the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act, which removes the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) ban on the creation and expansion of new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) and allows POHs to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. To read Sen. Lankford’s press release about the Act, click here.

The American Hospital Association and Federation of American Hospitals urged Congress to oppose S. 2860 as well as any other legislation that would repeal current law limiting self-referral to physician-owned hospitals.

“For more than 18 years, community hospitals, policymakers, the business community and governmental advisory bodies have grappled with overutilization and higher health care costs caused by self-referral to physician-owned hospitals (POHs),” the organizations wrote. “Conflicts of interest are inherent in these arrangements, whereby physicians refer their patients to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest. Nine years ago, after a decade of studies and congressional hearings showing the adverse impact of these arrangements, Congress acted to protect the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and the taxpayers who fund them, by imposing a ban on self-referral to new POHs. ... Nevertheless, some groups like the Physician Hospitals of America (PHA) continue to attempt to unwind current law. Their proposals would harm patients, community hospitals and local businesses.” (AHA Today, Nov. 19, 2019)