Physician Ownership Overview

Physician-owned hospitals (POHs) are among the highest performing, most cost-effective, patient-preferred facilities in the nation. Yet the Affordable Care Act arbitrarily restricted their growth. The Texas Medical Association urges Congress to overturn this moratorium on POHs. Read on to learn more about the rationale and the effort behind this.

With doctors at their helm, POHs consistently outperform non-POHs in both clinical and patient satisfaction scores.

  • An Avalon Health Economics study found that POHs have lower net payments than other hospitals, such that POH utilization will save the Medicare program $3.1 billion over a ten-year period.
  • POHs outscored non-POHs in recent Medicare quality program results, including the Hospital Star Ratings Program and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS).
  • And the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, created to reward hospitals for delivering high-quality care, adhering to clinical best practices, and improving patient experiences, recently released its 2017 results: seven POHs were among the top 10 nationally, and eight of the top 10 hospitals in Texas were physician owned.

Additionally, POHs devote more resources to charity care and community benefits than other hospitals, and have considerably lower hospital readmission rates and subsequent penalties.

Help physicians improve quality access to affordable, convenient health care by lifting the ban on POHs.

Physician Ownership main page

Last Updated On

March 01, 2018

Originally Published On

March 01, 2018

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