Sparking up an age-old debate between physician-owned hospitals and non-profit hospitals, a new bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this month will hamper the expansion of facilities owned by doctors as reported by the Rapid City Journal this week. See article

The concern stems from cases where a patient has an injury and is then scheduled for surgery in the hospital in which the physician owns. It is difficult to monitor the interests of each doctor and whether he/she simply wants to be sure that the patient is receiving the proper care, or if there is a conflict of interest.

One side of the coin is that many doctors run a physician-owned facility to avoid the bureaucracy that typically comes with a larger hospital. Opposing opinions suggest that other factors are considered when there is profit involved, and the existence of these hospitals is due in part to a loophole in a federal law.

It isn’t possible to say that this issue is always a conflict of interest, or strictly to see that the patient receives the proper care. Every facility is different and instead should be monitored accordingly.

Healthcare payers can ease their concerns of over-utilization, while ensuring proper care for their patients by using an independent review organization like AllMed to help make medical necessity determinations for their patients. 

The Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation's most prominent medical research centers, has begun publicly reporting its business relationships that any of its 1,800 staff doctors and scientists hold with drug and device makers, the New York Times reports.

The clinic's decision for such wide-spread disclosure comes as the nation's doctors and hospitals are under incredibly ballooning pressure to address potential financial conflicts of interest that can, and do, occur when they work closely with companies to develop and research new drugs and devices. The decision is commendable, considering that the majority of Americans take what they learn from the media and other authoritative figures as truth, without questioning the formula behind it.

Of course, the clinic's decision comes as atonement for past conflicts of interest after several of the clinic's doctors came under fire several years ago when the news media disclosed some of their financial links. The clinic opted to publicly disclose this information after a group undertook significant review of the clinic's past endeavors.

Aside from being a golden rule taught by our mothers, disclosing information and being honest should become a best practice for maintaining patient trust and safety as well as institutional integrity. An independent review organization can help hospitals and research clinics identify potential conflict of interest. Through thorough show and tell, a hospital can literally wipe its hands clean from possible conflicts of interest situations.

To read the full article, click here: Cleveland Clinic Discloses Doctors' Industry Ties