Dear Member of Congress:
The undersigned organizations are writing to express our strong support for H.R. 2513, the
Protecting Access, Competition, and Equity Act. This bipartisan legislation was introduced by
Congressmen Sam Johnson (R-TX) and Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) and provides reasonable
opportunities for expansion for high quality hospitals with physician ownership
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included a provision that strictly prohibits any new physician owned hospitals from participating in Medicare and Medicaid. We opposed this provision
during its consideration, as it creates an unlevel playing field in the health care system for one
particular model of hospital ownership. The ACA also prohibits existing, grandfathered
physician-owned hospitals from expanding, unless they meet a complicated set of criteria as
part of the application process. As a result of these restrictions, only 7 of 224 physician-owned
hospitals meet the qualifications for expansion under the criteria for “applicable hospital” or
“high Medicaid facility”.
The inability of physician-owned hospitals to address the growing demand for high quality
health care services in their community is bad for our entire health care system and does
nothing but penalize patients who should have the right to receive care at the hospital of their
choice. The restrictions on physician-owned hospitals are particularly discriminatory towards
Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Under current law, a physician-owned hospital is forced
to choose between expanding to meet the needs of its community or continuing to accept
Medicare and Medicaid patients.
…
Read full letter here
