Healthcare Financial News

A growing body of research is supporting what has long been a concern in health care: that physician ownership of hospitals may influence their referral decisions. That is the conclusion of a new American Hospital Association TrendWatch report, Physician Ownership and Self-referral in Hospitals: Research on Negative Effects Grows, released April 2.

According to the report, other negative impacts of physician hospital ownership include the fact that specialty hospitals focus on more profitable services, are associated with higher utilization, and serve fewer high-acuity, low-income, and uninsured patients--resulting in lost revenue to community hospitals. Citing the fact that 57 percent of physician-owned hospitals had margins at or above 10 percent in FY06 (as opposed to just 17 percent of other acute care hospitals with such margins), the report points out that these gains contribute to increasing systemwide health costs. Read the report.

Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released a new study April 2 that finds Midwestern states receive less funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) than other states, at an average of $16.24 per person. Southern states receive the most CDC funding, with an average of $29.40 per person.

The new analysis, Shortchanging America’s Health: A State-by-State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars Are Spent--2008, reviews key health statistics and federal funding for public health on a state-by-state level.

Federal funding for disease and injury prevention programs in states averages out to be $17.23 per person for FY07. However, CDC funding for individual states can vary by more than $56 per person, according to the analysis. Alaska receives more than any other state from the CDC at $69.76 per person. Kansas receives the least, at $13.61 per person. Download the report.