LINCOLN -- State lawmakers are trying to work out a compromise in the legislative battle between community hospitals and those owned by physicians.
A proposal in the Legislature would place a two-year moratorium on new hospital construction, which would kill a proposed, doctor-owned hospital in Kearney, Neb., that would compete with a community hospital there.
Monday morning, the Legislature's speaker, Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, announced that negotiations were held over the weekend to work out a compromise on the proposal, Legislative Bill 999.
Flood said it was too early to tell what might come of the talks, but the bill will most likely will not come back this week.
Community hospitals claim that doctor-owned facilities provide unfair competition to them because they can focus on just profit-generating services and patients who have insurance.
Backers of physician-owned facilities, meanwhile, maintain that free enterprise should allow them to own hospitals.
The new federal health-care reforms have provisions that discourage the construction of doctor-owned hospitals.
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