Doctors recommend an annual physical as a regular check on personal health. But where do the hospitals go for their check-ups?
If you’re Steward Health Care, you go to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The private equity-backed company had grabbed attention for buying up hospitals and doctors’ groups, and then squeezing them to maximize profits. When lawmakers asked for their CEO to testify about this practice, the head of the now-bankrupt hospital chain refused and then resigned.
As Laura and John Arnold write in their op-ed for Stat News, this recent scandal is just another symptom of a broken health care market.
“Many Steward hospitals have been or will be sold,” they say. “But unchecked hospital consolidation remains a threat, and when hospitals acquire physician practices, clinics, or other hospitals, patients almost invariably end up paying higher prices.”
As large hospital systems continue buying up small physician practices, changing the sign on the door, and often tripling the amount they can bill patients for the exact same procedures, including routine, run-of-the-mill services that are easily and safely performed outside of a hospital setting Congress can act to rein in these abusive practices.
One solution, which already has bipartisan support is site-neutral payment reform, ensuring patients pay the same price regardless of whether care is provided in a hospital-owned or independently owned physician’s office. One such bill — the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act—passed the House of Representatives, but the Senate still needs to act. And Congress can go even further, enacting comprehensive site-neutral payment reforms that could save Medicare more than $150 billion over the next decade.
“At a time when both Democrats and Republicans agree on this point, let’s not waste our chance to push back on this predatory behavior.”
Read the op-ed here: Philanthropists Laura and John Arnold warn: Beware hospital consolidation
