ASC Leader to Know: Brett Gosney of Animas Surgical Hospital

Brett Gosney is a founder and CEO of the Animas Surgical Hospital in Durango, Colo., the first physician-owned hospital in the state. Animas, which opened in December 2004, features 12 private patient suites, five operating rooms, state-of-the-art radiological and diagnostic imaging services and emergency care. The hospital's healthcare services span 27 specialties and subspecialties, including cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, pain management, radiology and primary care.

With more than 25 years of healthcare experience, Mr. Gosney is known in the healthcare industry not only as a successful leader at Animas but also a strong advocate of physician-owned hospitals. He has served as the president-elect of the Physician Hospitals of America's board of directors and currently serves as the immediate past president of the advocacy group.

Last June, Mr. Gosney offered his expert insight on the future of physician-owned hospitals at the 9th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management Conference in Chicago. Despite data showing physician-owned hospitals consistently rank higher than non-physician-owned hospitals in terms of quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction, a provision under healthcare reform has changed the future of the physician-owned hospital industry. Under law, expansion of physician-owned hospital beds, operating rooms or procedure rooms is now prohibited. PHA filed a lawsuit in federal court in June 2010, arguing Section 6001 was unconstitutional, but lawsuit did not receive a favorable ruling. PHA has filed an appeal in the appellate court.

"The repeal of Section 6001 is dependent on a shift in political party majority," said Mr. Gosney. He said PHA has been working with legal counsels to develop viable alternative ownership strategies, but ones that will not be deemed "circumvention ploys" by federal officials. For instance, one strategy discussed is that of in-office ancillaries. "In theory, a group of physicians could have a single- or multi-discipline as a practice and then have a hospital as an ancillary. There's no reason to believe this wouldn't work, but we need to have caution regarding advisory opinions," said Mr. Gosney.  

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