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Specialty Service Lines In The United States Hospital System: Old Wine, New Bottles, Michael Sajovetz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of specialty service lines in the United States health care system presents many significant questions regarding the access to, provision of, and financing of healthcare. In general terms, specialty service lines represent the newest development in several important trends in the American hospital system and reflect important trends in the wider economy. Many claims have been made regarding the effect of physician-owned specialty hospitals, from their exemption from self-referral prohibitions, their diversion of services away from general hospitals that use high profit margins to subsidize the "safety net," and concerns regarding the over-provision of technologically complex treatments in …