CHIP Expansion/Specialty Hospitals
On January 14, 2009, the House approved H.R. 2, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2009. The legislation would extend the CHIP program through FY 2013 and expand funding to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children. The House bill also would limit the "whole hospital" exception to the Stark law's self-referral prohibition to those hospitals with physician ownership or investment on January 1, 2009, and add significant new conditions to that exception for existing hospitals with physician ownership. The version of the CHIP reauthorization bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee and currently being debated by the full Senate does not include specialty hospital provisions.
