Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley, along with Representatives Val Hoyle, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Suhas Subramanyam introduced the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act to ban the corporate practice of medicine, including by private equity and Management Service Organizations (MSOs). Numerous other members of Congress and advocacy and physician groups endorsed the legislation, including CPCC, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), OrthoForum, Alliance of Independent Dentists, and OnCARE Alliance.
As CPCC’s Policy Director Joe Van Wye said in Senator Warren’s press release, “States established prohibitions against the corporate practice of medicine a century ago for a simple reason: when corporations start making medical decisions instead of doctors, everyone loses. Care gets worse and more expensive for patients, working conditions get worse for doctors and their staff, and communities lose the unique benefits of high-quality, independent care.”
The legislation bans private equity funds, insurance companies, and other for-profit corporations from owning or controlling medical practices. It also closes the longstanding “friendly physician” loophole that lets corporations control medical practices by way of MSOs, and makes it illegal for MSOs to take over business and clinical operations such as work schedules, hiring and firing, billing, contracting, and setting revenue targets.
The legislation takes Oregon’s landmark approach to ban private equity funds, insurance companies, and other for-profit corporations from owning or controlling medical practices. Keeping corporate actors out of our healthcare system will keep care quality high and costs low. Today, 80% of doctors in the US are employed by corporate entities. Decisions in healthcare should be made between physicians and patients, not PE-backed investors and corporate middlemen. CPCC board members delivered remarks and met with legislators at the press conference in Washington, D.C.:
- “We believe physicians, not corporations, should make the decisions that affect patient care, and that local, physician-owned practices are the best way to protect that independence,” said Vicki Norton, MD, FAAEM, President of the AAEM. “Some states have laws protecting physicians and patients from the corporate practice of medicine. But those protections shouldn’t depend on where a patient lives.”
- “I can tell you from seeing my friends and colleagues, patients are never better off when a corporate starts calling the shots in a dentist’s office. We can no longer prioritize taking care of our patients; care gets worse and more expensive, and dentists burn out,” said Amy Adair, DMD, MSD, Board of Directors of the Alliance of Independent Dentists. “It means so much to see this bill—which would extend the strongest corporate practice of medicine restrictions any state has passed to every patient in the nation—include my profession.”
- “We work in a healthcare system that is perfectly designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of large corporate entities and is increasingly badly designed toa ctually take care of patients. said Barbara McAneny, MD, FASCO, MACP, CO-Chair of the ONCare Alliance. “We strongly oppose the corporate practice of medicine, and commend the sponsors of the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act for introducing this important bill that will help us and help all doctors design our practices to make the best treatment plans for our patients.”
- “The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act stops corporations from practicing medicine, keeps doctors in charge of Americans’ healthcare, and makes patients–not profits–at the center of care,” said Alexis McCabe, MD, an independent, board-certified emergency physician.
