Posted on 03/25/2010 6:42:15 AM PDT by Slyscribe
There are currently 60 to 65 physician-owned hospitals under construction. Those that aren't finished and don't have a Medicare provider number by Aug. 1 (Dec. 31 if the reconciliation bill passes) will probably never open their doors. Without a provider number, such hospitals can't treat Medicare patients, which are usually essential to financial survival.
The feud over physician-owned hospitals has been boiling for many years. The American Hospital Association, along with key lawmakers such as Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., have made numerous efforts to curtail physician-owned hospitals. In 2003, Grassley won a temporary ban on new construction of these hospitals in the Medicare prescription drug bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
So one of the immediate results of MengeleCare is fewer hospitals. To go along with the vastly increased number of new patients.
60-65 “under construction”!? That would equal thousands of unemployed if construction is ended. Which, I would imagine, is the case.
What a mess this idiot has gotten us into.
Part of the plan.
The fewer the resources, the easier they are to allocate (and deny).
fewer hospitals. fewer specialists. long waits for simple tests.
can they make it as hospitals for those who opt out of govt control?
It also bans hospital expansion without approval of the gov’t.
So tell me again how this is to cover tens of millions more...without culling?
Why would a republican (Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa) sign on to this???
Moslems are not bound by ObamaCARE (naturally).
So presumably, Islamic hospitals with immigrant physicians
would be not only OK, but approved a priori.
Ha, ha, you’re kidding, right? It’s called campaign cash from the American Hospital Assocition. Of course, they will call it something else, but this is designed to limit competition.
And it is one more demonstration of how most Republicans are just as corrupt as the Democrats. It’s all about money and power.
yeah! What you said.
Why would anyone consider it a bad thing for doctors to own a hospital?
Why can't physicians or anyone else open a hospital just like anyone else creating a business? They aren't denying patients. If the government program was so wonderful, why would the physicians not want it. Sounds like the government should fix itself rather than force the physicians to accept it. Bad medicine.
We need good health care. Why are we letting the government destroy it while bankrupting us? They said this reform was urgent, but it's the taxes that are kicking in, not the health care.
All they've been doing since they took power with Reid, Pelosi and now obama is spend tax money, rack up the charges on the next generation's credit cards and take over things like car companies, muck up the credit and banking industries setting them up to fail and are now doing the same thing to the health insurance business. And who is cheering them on?
Snips:
“There is plenty of research that physician-owned specialty hospitals cherry-pick,” said Pryga. “They send the lucrative patients to their own facilities and the others to the community hospitals.”
Note: Unlike Michelle Obama, who kicked the poor and community out of U of C hospitals to ‘health centers’ with standard hours and no emergency rooms... hey, it’s all about preventative care. You get away with that in sanctuary cities, with about other ones?
“Anyone who feels like we are cherry-picking should come and see us at work,” Dietz said. “We do everything from minor surgery to complex spine reconstruction. The only reason we send a patient to another hospital is if their insurance won’t come to our hospital, if the patient wants it that way, or if his primary-care physician prefers another hospital.”
The AHA says physician-owned hospitals cause other financial hardships for community hospitals.
“Hospitals can make additional expenses to rebuild a service (that competes with the physician-owned hospital),” said Pryga. “They may have to cut back on other services to do that. Also, most physician hospitals don’t have emergency rooms and so don’t have a point of entry for the uninsured and Medicaid patients.”
(see note above)
Sandvig said, “That’s been the rhetoric for nine years and the existing hospitals are not going out of business. Most are doing just fine.”
*A 2006 General Accountability Office study found “little evidence to suggest that general hospitals made substantially more or fewer changes or different types of changes if some of their competition came from a specialty hospital.”
(Bingo)
But, says Dr. Hooman Sedighi, a physician at the Center, “We are working at capacity, and if we want to add to capacity, this bill pretty much precludes that. The other thing is the potential job loss — the ones that are under construction or expanding, they would have been hiring additional staff and personnel.”
Physicians who are not hospital owners had differing opinions on this legislation.
“The country is going to move in the direction of fewer hospital beds,” said Dr. Daniel Fass, a radiation oncologist. “I think there needs to be a mechanism to rein that in. Efficient care is best delivered, if possible, in the outpatient setting.”
(hello waiting lists)
Dr. Michael Hall, a family practitioner, said, “I personally don’t see anything wrong with a physician owning a hospital. The costs, on average, are a lot less than what you get in a regular hospital. They tend to get you in and out quick.”
I yield to the medical professionals on this thread.
Having a R after his name doesn't exempt him from being a MORON!!
>> Medicare patients... are usually essential to financial survival.
That was then. This is now.
Look for new business models that don’t rely on Medicare patients, for the lucky minority that can afford to pay for it.
Physician owned hospitals, because their owners reputations are on line locally, in their communities, demonstrate better outcomes-something our fascist masters can’t allow...
Goes to show how $$$ can corrupt anyone. (Taking off my rose-colored glasses.)
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