Baucus, Grassley Agree to Drop Physician-Owned Hospitals as Offset From Upcoming Bill

Physician Hospitals of America reports that it has "received information … that physician hospitals are no longer being used as an offset in the Mental Health Parity bill," says Molly Sandvig, JD, the organization's executive director. "The MHP bill was added to a pending 'tax extender' bill, which also covers the Alternative Minimum Tax issue. Although there was a rumor that physician hospitals may be added to the tax extender bill, that rumor has also been put to rest.

"This is a great outcome for our industry."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Sept. 18 an agreement with the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leadership to move legislation accomplishing the Finance panel's remaining major objectives for the year: passage of clean energy tax incentives, the protection of millions of Americans from the alternative minimum tax (AMT), and extensions of expiring family and business tax cuts. The long-awaited legislation will also provide parity for mental health treatment in the U.S. healthcare system, but physician-owned hospitals will not be an offset for this or any other part of the bill.

However, PHA is not letting down its guard, as there are "still a couple of possibilities for further industry challenge in the remaining three weeks of this session," says Ms. Sandvig. "In addition, we have been told that there is a strong likelihood that there will be a lame duck session held post-elections. We are focusing our efforts on supporting our advocates through the election cycle, continuing to build and strengthen existing and new relationships, and keeping our ear to the ground, so to speak, for any additional challenges that we might face in 2008."

Join PHA and support its efforts.