This is the federal version of legislation we have in Oregon. The law was tested earlier this year, when Peace Health attempted to replace their local, independent EM group with ApolloMD, a national corporate management group based in Atlanta. The EM group sued and won. The law works. This is a way to protect independent physicians and preserve physician autonomy. Is the law perfect? No. One of the criticisms I keep seeing is that it doesn’t address non-profit hospital direct ownership of physicians, and that is true. The Oregon law originally included hospitals, but the American Hospital Association lobby went nuclear and received an exemption for non-profit hospitals, much to everybody’s dismay. One thing that is unique to the Oregon law and, now, this federal legislation is that it targets the MSO-PC model that so many hospital systems use to supplant independent physician practices. This is not just about private equity. This legislation is fighting a practice model that gives non-physician, corporate influence over clinical decision making. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of hospitals canceling contracts with high functioning, local, independent physician practices, and handing those contracts to these national corporate groups, who then staff hospital departments with temporary physician, NPs, and PAs with no institutional knowledge and no investment in the community. Even though this legislation may not apply to hospitals directly employing physicians, it does give independent physician practices more leverage with the hospitals they serve. This bill also gets rid of non disparagement agreements and non competes. If passed, this would be a huge win for independent physicians and communities who get to keep their local doctors.