Texas House members are mounting an effort to delay new limits on physician-owned hospitals. The House's healthcare legislation would ban new physician-owned hospitals and prevent existing ones from growing. But Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, is pushing two amendments to soften the restrictions, including a grandfather clause for more than 100 doctor-owned hospitals under development. The restriction is championed by Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat who says physician-owned hospitals cherry-pick wealthy patients to the detriment of nonprofit, acute care hospitals.
