Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/510361
1 0 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A Y 2 0 1 5 5 Stars for Physician Ownership CMS star rating system finds physician-owned hospitals most satisfactory. F unny how things work out sometimes, how what comes around really does go around, how sweet revenge and redemp- tion can be, how the world always makes room for winners. Back in December 2010, when we first told you about Physicians Care Surgical Hospital in suburban Philadelphia, there wasn't much to tell you about. We put a hand surgeon and a backhoe on the cover. They stood on a swath of unde- veloped earth where a physician-owned hospital was to be built. The project, however, was in real danger of cratering. Under the healthcare reform law enacted earlier that year, physician- owned projects had until year's end to secure Medicare certification. The deadline was one more attempt by the powerful hospital lobbies to kill off the threat these focused factories posed. In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act put an 18-month freeze on payments to any new facilities. Even today, hospitals with physician ownership in their blood are banned from expanding under the Affordable Care Act. Undeterred by the government's best efforts to legislate them out of existence, the surgeons plowed ahead and built their multi-specialty surgical hospital. The 30,000 square-foot center with 5 ORs is equipped for general surgery, gynecology, oral and maxillofacial sur- gery, ophthalmology, orthopedics and otolaryngology. It is popular where it matters most: amongst patients. In a lovely twist of fate, Medicare has awarded Physicians Care Surgical Hospital its top "5-star" rating based on patient satisfaction and experience, truly a rare distinction. • Physician-owned hospitals account for only 5% of all U.S. hospi- tals, yet they represented 84 of the 251 hospitals receiving 5-star rat- ings in Medicare's summary star ratings. In all, Medicare judged 3,500 E D I T O R ' S P A G E Dan O'Connor