U.S. lawmakers battle over “specialty” hospitals
Battle lines were officially drawn Thursday on Capitol Hill over whether lawmakers should ban the further spread of physician-owned “specialty” hospitals that only treat patients with select conditions.
On Wednesday, Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana introduced legislation that would continue a moratorium on construction of new specialty facilities beyond its June 8 expiration.
"I don’t think it is fair to promote a system in which physicians can send healthier and more profitable patients to hospitals they own while referring less profitable patients with more extensive health problems to other institutions,” said Baucus in a statement. “The playing field needs to be level.”
But Thursday morning, Republican Joe Barton of Texas, the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he does not support any further delay in allowing new facilities to open.
“I don’t think any further legislation is needed,” Barton said at a Health Subcommittee hearing on the moratorium. “In this case I can do nothing and win,” he added.
Those who support the specialty facilities, which tend to treat heart patients, or perform orthopedic or other surgical procedures, said the current moratorium is hurting more than just those who were planning new facilities.
“It limits the expansion of facilities, the introduction of new services and the addition of new investors in response to changing needs and circumstances in our communities,” testified Dr. Alan Pierrot on behalf of the American Surgical Hospital Association. “Our ability to serve patients has been eroded,” Pierrot added.
Meanwhile, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan said he is seeking a middle ground in the debate, effectively extending the moratorium on new facilities himself for 6 more months.
McClellan told the subcommittee he plans to undertake a thorough review of how specialty hospitals are approved for participation in Medicare or Medicaid, and that his agency “will instruct our state survey and certification agencies to refrain from processing further participation applications from specialty hospitals until this review is completed and any indicated revisions are implemented.”
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