Casey Jo Humbyrd

I’m hearing so many people cite conflict of interest as the reason physicians shouldn’t own hospitals. This also happens to be the main strategy the American Hospital Association used to lobby Congress to ban POHs in the Affordable Care Act, paving the way for the consolidated corporate nightmare we enjoy today. The conflict of interest argument is absurd in a for profit healthcare system. Hospitals force their employed physicians to refer to other specialists within their own hospital system. Physicians recommend surgery then do the surgery themselves collecting both a clinic fee and a surgery fee. Optum forces patients to see their doctors, use their pharmacies, and be admitted to their own hospitals. If there is profit to be made in patient care, there will be a conflict of interest among the entities/people collecting that profit. The closest thing to a conflict of interest free system is one that is devoid of profit. Call me cynical, but that will not happen in the US. So we can wring our hands about the potential corruption and malfeasance evil greedy doctors will inflict upon our great country if physicians owned hospitals, while ignoring the actual corruption and malfeasance already displayed by hospital corporations. We can ignore data that shows POHs as a whole (~250 in the US, holdovers from pre-ACA times) have better outcomes at lower costs. Or we can introduce some actual competition in the healthcare marketplace to give patients a chance for better care from people who actually got into this business to treat patients, care that is not dictated by a private equity company or insurance company. Just give physicians a chance to show that we can do a better job. That’s all we’re asking. If we suck at it, we won’t get very far, right? Isn’t that what the free market is for? Repeal the ban on physician owned hospital.