Congress today gave its final stamp of approval to legislation that expands children's health insurance coverage but does not ban physicians from referring patients to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest.
An earlier version of the bill approved by the House contained provisions that would have added restrictions on existing physician-owned hospitals and halted the development of new ones. However, that language was not included in the Senate version of the legislation or in the final bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by both the Senate and the House. President Obama is expected to sign the bill to authorize and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program today.
Molly Sandvig, executive director of Physicians Hospitals of America, praised Congress for keeping the physician-ownership provisions out of the bill. "Congress recognized that the SCHIP bill was too important to delay its passage in order to address the contentious issue of physician ownership of hospitals, which was inappropriately attached to this important package," says Ms. Sandvig is a press release.
—Irene Tsikitas
