By Haroon Ansari, Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Hospital in Crown Point, Indiana.
Your hospital has a boss you never met. In most of America, it is a corporate health system parent, a system headquarters, private equity firm, or an investor group made up of insurance companies. At Pinnacle Hospital, physicians are in charge from governance and ownership standpoint.
I have sat on every side of the table: the insurer negotiating rates, the network managing physicians, the health systems paying the bills. In 2009, I chose to lead Pinnacle Hospital, which is owned by physicians. Here’s what I learned.
Finances and the outcome belong at the same desk
In most hospitals, the person who controls spending may not be accountable for the clinical outcomes. Physician ownership ends that. Overhead keeps climbing: a 2026 Brown University study found that Medicare’s mandatory quality programs alone are tied to as much as $1.2 million a year in added administrative costs per hospital, more than $3 billion nationally.[1] When physicians own the hospital, every one of those dollars has to justify itself to someone who sees its cost at the bedside and throughout the delivery of patient care episodes.
Nothing lost in translation
Each hospital decision crosses a language barrier. A surgeon says a new implant reduces revisions. Finance hears a larger line item. By the time the request climbs three levels and comes back down, the clinical reasoning is gone. Our physician owners speak both languages. The physician who finds a better device, imaging platform, or scheduling tool is steps away from the people who approve it. Technology gets adopted in months, not budget cycles, and the savings arrive sooner and better clinical outcomes are achieved more efficiently.
Focus beats scale
Pinnacle has 18 beds and five operating suites. That is a strategy, not a limitation. Teams that perform a defined set of elective procedures every day get faster, more consistent, and less wasteful. The market sees it. Johns Hopkins researchers compared 156 physician-owned hospitals with 1,116 competitors in the same regions and found negotiated prices about a third lower for the same procedures.[2] They expected the opposite.
Good people stay where problems get solved
Clinicians rarely quit a hospital. They quit unsolved problems. A 2025 study of more than 21,000 physicians and nurses linked adequate nurse staffing and genuine teamwork to lower physician burnout and fewer doctors planning to leave.[3] When the people hearing the complaint also work the floor, the fix does not wait for a quarterly review as it happens continuously on demand.
The patient decides
Oversight is necessary. Credentialing, peer review, and regulation protect patients, and we embrace all of it. Every additional layer between you and your physician is someone whose priorities might not match your own. Physician ownership keeps that chain short: you, your doctor, and the team carrying out what you decided together.
Time to revisit the freeze
Congress froze the growth of physician-owned hospitals in 2010.[4] Critics argued that physician owners would steer healthier, wealthier patients into their own hospitals and drive up the use of services.[5]
Sixteen years later, the evidence on cost points the other way. Physician-owned hospitals charge around a third less than their competitors for the same procedures. Even Medicare is taking a second look. In its 2027 payment rule, Medicare noted some evidence that physician-owned hospitals may help control costs and prevent hospital consolidation and said it intends to propose a path for more of them to join one of its newest payment models especially for elective and preventative care procedures.[6]
Why Pinnacle
Pinnacle was founded by physicians who had cared for patients at facilities across the region and the country, and who shared a vision of what hospital care should be. Today, our medical staff of roughly 150 physicians covers two dozen specialties, from orthopedics and neurosurgery to cardiology and oncology, supported by five operating suites and a cardiac catheterization lab.
Some of our physicians are owners and some are independent physicians in the community. Others are employed by the hospital so we can meet the needs of our community. Together they deliver care in a hospital where you are a patient, not a number.
You choose your doctor. You choose your insurance. You can choose your hospital too. Ask who owns your hospital. Then ask who is in the room when decisions about your care get made.
Haroon Ansari has a Ph.D. in Healthcare Administration and Master’s work in Public Health Administration. He has led Pinnacle Hospital since 2009 and a CEO of an ASC since 2005.
We are located near the intersection of I‑80 and I‑65 in Crown Point, serving families across northwest Indiana and Illinois (Greater Chicago Markets). We offer a network of primary care providers and specialists in 70-mile radius reach from Lake County, IN.
[1] Zhou Z, Buxbaum JD, Ryan AM. Mandatory value-based payment programs and hospital administrative costs. JAMA Health Forum. 2026; Vol. 7, No. (8). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.2503
[2] Wang Y, Plummer E, Wang Y, Cram P, Bai G. Comparison of commercial negotiated price and cash price between physician-owned hospitals and other hospitals in the same hospital referral region. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(6). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.19980
[3] Aiken LH, Sermeus W, McKee M, et al. Informing hospital physician well-being interventions in Europe and the US. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(11). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.44067
[4] 42 USC §1395nn. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1395nn
[5] Blumenthal DM, Orav EJ, Jena AB, Dudzinski DM, Le ST, Jha AK. Access, quality, and costs of care at physician owned hospitals in the United States: observational study. BMJ. 2015;351:h4466. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4466
[6] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. FY 2027 IPPS/LTCH PPS final rule. Fed Regist. August 4, 2026. FR Doc. 2026-15833. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/04/2026-15833/medicare-program-hospital-inpatient-prospective-payment-systems-for-acute-care-hospitals-ipps-and