Georgia hospitals sue to stop surgery centers

Jacksonville Times-Union, January 2, 2008

Nearly five dozen hospitals filed suit this week seeking to overturn a state rule that allows general surgeons to open physician-owned surgery centers without going through the state's healthcare planning process. Under the new rule, general surgeons who focus on abdominal surgeries are classified as a "single specialty." Single-specialty surgery centers that are located in a doctor's office are exempt from the state's certificate of need laws. The hospitals argue that the ruling never intended general surgeons to classify for the exemption.