PHA Denounces Farm Bill

PHA Says No to Seniors and Physicians Paying for Agribusiness Subsidies

This is the latest effort by opponents of hospitals that are controlled and owned by physicians instead of bureaucrats and non-physician corporations and has already drawn strong criticism from groups such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the statement reads.

“Our opponents are trying to sell-out America’s seniors and the physicians who’ve sworn an oath to provide them the best care humanly possible,” asserts Sandvig. “All for the benefit of big agribusiness and the big healthcare monopolies they represent.”

Sandvig adds that physicians have taken the lead on healthcare and hospital reform because their patients are not being well served by a system, “designed and controlled by bureaucrats.”

Senators working on the farm bill who are also opposed to physician owned hospitals want to use “savings” identified by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to offset the costs of new farm programs.

“We dispute the CBO conclusions,” Sandvig says. “These so-called savings are being used as an excuse to attack physicians. But even if the CBO estimate was accurate, using federal money dedicated to providing healthcare services for Medicare beneficiaries to support farm programs is outrageous. Americans work hard to pay into Medicare to support their hospital services. Those tax dollars should not wind up in the farm program.”

PHA also urged members of Congress to be wary of information being distributed by the various industry groups for whom the effort to close hospitals owned by physicians has been undertaken.

As PHA points out in its statement, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) sent a letter recently to the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federation of American Hospitals and the Coalition of Full Service Community Hospitals criticizing the way those organizations had characterized a recent OIG report on physician owned hospitals in talking points that were distributed to members of Congress.

“This rebuke by the OIG is further evidence that those who oppose physician ownership are not providing accurate information to Congress,” notes PHA president, Doug

Johnson. “Congress should be suspicious of any communications on this issue that comes from these organizations. The truth is that patients, physicians and staff prefer the physician owned model over the traditional ‘big box’ impersonal system that is so prevalent today. We ask Congress to recognize this and allow physicians to continue to develop high quality, cost effective facilities that give patients a real choice where they receive their care.”

PHA urges Congress to reject this attempt to bypass the regular legislative process and stop the effort to add anti-physician hospital provisions to the farm bill.

Source: Physician Hospitals of America (PHA)

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