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Legislation would ban hospitals and corporations from directly employing docs

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, June 14, 2005

The American Medical Association (AMA) is recommending the development of legislation that would prevent hospitals and corporations from directly employing physicians, according to The Miami Herald.

AMA trustees wrote in a formal report that the proposal stems from the concern that physicians are losing their independence.

"We don't want to have corporations or anybody using their concerns about finance to influence the relationship between a patient and a physician," said Joseph Heyman, a Massachusetts gynecologist who is an AMA trustee, according to the Herald. "We want the physicians to . . . make the best choices for the patients.'"

Some states, such as Texas, already have laws prohibiting doctors from working for corporations not owned by physicians.

Opponents to the legislation claim that physicians employed by corporations are not influenced by corporation executives when it comes to quality of care or a physician's moral responsibility to patients' well being.

The AMA's House of Delegates is expected to hear the proposal this week at the AMA's annual meeting.

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