Physician-owned hospitals in North Texas are finding ways to expand despite being banned from accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients. They are catering to and cashing in on a narrow patient market. "I do not believe in trying to be all things to all people because when you do that, you can become quite large and quite burdened by overhead," said Robert Helms, CEO of Victory Healthcare. "To me, the most efficient model is a smaller model that is very focused." For-profits with doctor ownership were supposed to have their growth halted by the Affordable Care Act. Critics said they increased prices, cherry-picked patients and created conflicts of interest from doctor self-referrals.
