White paper highlights the need for more number of physician hospitals

Today, the Senior Center for Health and Security (SCHS) announced the publication of an important new white paper which fully explores the critical nature of high-quality physician hospitals for seniors, their promise for the nation, and their competitors' latest effort to drive them completely out of existence.

"According to a new Consumer Reports study of more than a million patients, physician hospitals rank number one in 19 of the 33 states in which they operate, and near the top in the other states," notes SCHS Policy Director Al Cors. "However, proposed health care reform measures under discussion would limit and restrict access to these fine medical facilities for the very patients who need them most, millions of Medicare beneficiaries," Cors emphasized. "Hopefully, this paper will raise the visibility of this important discussion, not only for seniors, but for all Americans," he stressed. The restrictions on physician hospitals and their impact on older Americans have been described by some as the "first step in Medicare rationing."

As the white paper highlights, hospitals are the heart of America's health care industry, consuming almost one-third of the nation's $2 trillion annual health care bill. "You would think that the best hospitals would be the ones supported and emulated," said Cors. "But that clearly is not the case in some of the most prominent reform plans," he continued.

The paper also notes, "While the political health care reform debate often centers around covering the uninsured, according to the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, you are five times more likely to die from visiting a hospital than being uninsured."

"For seniors, the broadest access to high-quality hospital care may well be the most important element of health care reform," Cors concluded.