The recent passage of the massive 500 billion dollars federal Medicare Bill may be a boom for insurance and drug companies, but it's a bust for the construction industry. The new bill, which narrowly passed Congress, puts an i8-month construction moratorium on physician-owned specialty hospitals, a growing - and lucrative-niche market for architects, engineers and contractors. Since the moratorium, plans for at least two heart hospitals in the metro Phoenix area have been canceled. According to the Government Accounting Office, the number of physician-owned specialty hospitals has tripled since 1992 to 92 across the nation. As of February 2003, another 20 were in various stages of development. To move forward, the 20 hospitals must have reached significant design and construction milestones by November 2003.
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