The story chronicles the last three pieces of legislation (covering 10 months) that have included anti-physician-owned hospital language, and quotes Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health as saying that physician-owned hospitals are “overutilized. Physicians are referring patients to these hospitals in many cases for unnecessary procedures.”
The report also briefly discusses the hardships that physician-owned hospitals would face if negative legislation were to be enacted, and in the final two paragraphs quotes Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Texas), an obstetrician-gynecologist, as saying that “Congress should ‘keep its hands off’ doctor-owned hospitals. ? ‘If you want to invest in a hospital, if you are willing to put personal capital at risk, you should not be forbidden to do so just because you are a doctor.'”
