Opinion

Sacred Heart Health System, Inc. v. Infirmary Health System

  • 155 So. 3d 969
  • 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 276
  • 2010 WL 3722565
Court
Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama
Filed
Sep 24, 2010
Status
Published
Author
Pittman
On the bench
Application, Bryan, Deny, Moore, Pittman, Thomas, Thompson, Writing
Cited by
2 cases

The opinion

PITTMAN, Judge,

dissenting.

The plain language chosen by the legislature in “the physician’s office exemption” excludes from the scope of regulated “health care facilities]” the “offices of private physicians or dentists ... for ... group practices ... regardless of ownership.” Ala.Code 1975, § 22-21-260(6) (emphasis added). The facility at issue in this case, with the exception of an ambulatory-care center (which, as the main opinion notes, has already been the subject of administrative CON proceedings) and separate areas intended for sublease and for retention by the owner, is intended for the exclusive use of a single group practice: Sacred Heart’s affiliated physicians, whose patient billings are fully centralized. In my view, the main opinion penalizes Sacred Heart for being too successful in recruiting and retaining its numerous physicians by preventing it from establishing a medical office for those physicians in Gulf Shores. Because I believe that the facility at issue falls within the physician’s office exemption as set forth by the legislature and as reasonably interpreted by the ad *980 ministrative agency with primary implementation authority, I respectfully dissent from the reversal of the trial court’s judgment.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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