Physician-Led Hospitals Coalition Letter
We, the undersigned organizations, representing physicians and patients, support the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act (S. 470/H.R. 977), introduced by Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) and Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX). The legislation would improve patient access to high quality physicians and hospital services, and address hospital consolidation by allowing physician-led hospitals to compete.
A diverse cadre of experts – including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Congressional Budget Office and academic researchers – have detailed how hospital consolidation hurts patients and the healthcare system, citing increased prices, higher costs for federal programs and consumers and lower quality outcomes. S. 470/H.R. 977 would eliminate section 6001 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has restricted the expansion and new development of physician-led hospitals for more than a decade. Since the ban went into effect, highly concentrated hospital markets have continued to grow – driven by hospital mergers and buyouts of physician practices by increasingly large health systems.
Click here to view the full Neurosurgery Joins Coalition in Urging Congress to Repeal Ban on Physician-Led Hospitals.
