From new facilities to fresh CMS guidance, here are three key updates shaping the physician-owned hospital landscape in 2025:
1. The TXM Manor Emergency Room, a physician-owned hospital and outpatient facility, is scheduled to open in July 2026. The $25 million project, led by Harbir Singh, MD, founder of the TXM MicroHospital, will be the first in Texas to combine immediate emergency care, inpatient care and surgical services under one roof. The 24,000-square-foot facility will include six licensed inpatient rooms, two operating suites, a six-bed emergency department and a range of specialized services. It will be wholly physician-owned and operated
2. In March, CMS issued a rare Stark law advisory opinion related to physician-owned hospitals. Law firm McGuireWoods secured the opinion on behalf of a hospital seeking to relocate eight miles from its current site and add an emergency department. CMS determined that the hospital would continue to qualify for the whole-hospital exception under Stark law. A key factor was that the hospital maintained physician ownership and a Medicare provider agreement as of Dec. 31, 2010, preserving its exemption.
3. Also in March, federal lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow physician ownership of rural hospitals located more than 35 miles from a main campus or critical access hospital, or 15 miles in mountainous terrain. The legislation aims to broaden access to care in underserved communities by giving physicians more direct involvement in hospital ownership and operations.
