AHA: House bill would repeal 15-year ban on new physician-owned hospitals, ‘destabilize’ health care access

The AHA July 8 wrote in opposition to the “Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act” (H.R. 4002), which would repeal current law banning the creation and limiting the expansion of physician-owned hospitals. “H.R. 4002 would result in additional gaming of the Medicare program, jeopardizing patient access to emergency care, potentially harming sicker and lower-income patients, and severely damaging the safety-net provided by full-service community hospitals across the nation,” AHA said in its letter to the bill’s sponsors. In 2010, Congress enacted a ban on the establishment of new POHs and restricted the ability of existing POHs to expand.