June 04, 2010 02:15am EST 

Physician-owned hospitals and their local economies will suffer if the current health care reform bill is passed. Both the U.S. House bill and the new bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate will restrict every hospital owned by physicians from growing in response to the needs of its local community.
Hospitals that are partly owned and run by doctors are controversial, if only because of the potential conflicts of interests that may endanger patients and threaten the survival of general hospitals. Regardless, there are now more than 100 physician-owned specialty hospitals provide specialized care, albeit at an expensive price.
“This provision would destroy over 200 of America’s best and safest hospitals,” said Molly Sandvig, Executive Director of Physician Hospitals of America (PHA), “resulting in the loss of thousands of health care jobs and more economic hardship in communities across America that are already suffering the effects of the recession.”
Physician-owned hospitals have been known to provide some of the highest-quality of all hospitals in the Unitd States. They are expected to employ over 70,000 Americans by next year, accounting for a $2.4 billion payroll and over $1.9 billion per year on trade payables. The new health reform bills would drop the majority of these jobs and cause states and cities to lose an average of $2,575,000 a year in taxes. Under the new health reform bill, only 2% of non-physician owned hospitals and not one physician-owned hospital would qualify under the criterion for growth.
Physician Hospitals of America, or PHA, is an organization that supports, advocates for, and educates the physician owned hospital industry. Visit their website for more information.