Colorado Medical Society

WHEREAS, hospital corporations in Colorado have extraordinary market power and are actively pursuing to dismantle competitive physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and convalescent care centers, and

WHEREAS, the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Medicare ambulatory surgery center benefit this year, which has saved Medicare over $1 billion annually as noted by the Inspector General for the US Department of Health and Human Services, by providing a lower cost alternative to hospital-based surgery, and

WHEREAS, patients also save on health care expenditures because their coinsurance obligations are considerably lower when they receive procedures performed in ASCs, and

WHEREAS, the Stark law, which prohibits physician ownership of most health care facilities, expressly permits physician ownership of ASCs; moreover, over the past quarter-century Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Inspector General for the US Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) have recognized that ASCs provide a lower cost alternative for surgery, and that there is little if any risk of abuse when physicians own ASCs and convalescent care centers, the government has wisely established policies that actually promote ASC development by protecting physician ownership of ASCs as noted by the Stark law; and furthermore, of the nearly 4000 Medicare certified ASCs, physicians have ownership interest in an overwhelming majority (83%) of them, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Colorado Medical Society resist efforts to limit competition in the healthcare market, and reject challenges to physician ownership of ASCs and convalescent centers, and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Colorado Medical Society through its Board of Directors actively pursue legislation to preserve the viability of licensed ambulatory surgery centers and convalescent centers in the State of Colorado.

FISCAL IMPACT: Minimal