by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | July 04, 2023
Physician-owned hospitals have long been suspected of hampering access to affordable healthcare, but a new study highlights their cost-saving capabilities. Researchers from the U.S. and Canada have published findings in JAMA Network Open indicating that, at least for eight services, physician-owned facilities are charging roughly one-third (33%) less than their non-physician-owned hospital counterparts.
Using data from the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, the authors compared prices at 156 general acute-care physician-owned hospitals located in 78 hospital referral regions across the U.S. with 1,116 non-physician-owned hospitals within the same regions. The eight services analyzed for cost comparison included MR scans of lower spinal canal (33% less) and CT scans of abdomen and pelvis (20% less).
The study, which was funded by Patient Rights Advocate, a group advocating for healthcare price transparency, offered other insightful metrics: Physician-owned hospitals had 55 beds compared to 162 at non-physician-owned, and higher profit margins (15.2% versus 7.1%). Unlike their counterparts, the vast majority of physician-owned hospitals were for-profit, non-teaching, and non-critical access.
A bigger, more complicated picture
Although the researchers were surprised by their findings, they did offer an explanation for the cost disparity.
Yang Wang, lead researcher and assistant scientist in the department of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, pointed out that non-POHs treated twice as many Medicaid patients and provided nearly three times as much charity care as POHs.
“That might be one reason that might enable them to accept lower commercial prices,” Wang told HCB News.
The American Hospital Association put a finer point on the difference between physician-owned and non-physician-owned hospital patient demographics, saying in
its own response to the study that the data “shows conclusively that POHs shun medically complex patients, as well as the uninsured and those on Medicaid.”
The AHA response, by Stacey Hughes and Chip Kahn, goes on to question the use of price transparency data over claims data, saying it does not reflect actual provider payments. In the case of emergency care (which was among the eight services analyzed), they argue that prices listed by physician-owned hospitals may be “ghost rates” that are never actually put into use because those facilities typically “provide far fewer emergency services — if any at all” compared to general hospitals.
