[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 57 (Thursday, March 26, 2026)]
[House]
[Page H2755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1550
          ENACTING FEDERAL CORPORATE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE LAW

  (Ms. HOYLE of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. HOYLE of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, for 35 years, PeaceHealth Hospital, 
the only level II trauma center between Corvallis, Oregon, and Crescent 
City, California, abruptly ended its contract with our local emergency 
room staffing group, Eugene Emergency Physicians.
  With little notice and significant local opposition, PeaceHealth has 
awarded the contract to a Georgia-based management and medical staffing 
firm, Apollo.
  Beyond losing locally based physicians who have met or exceeded 
performance standards in a hospital that has refused to address the 
lack of adequate patient care rooms, the Apollo Group appears to be a 
shell company set up to get around Oregon's law to ban the corporate 
practice of medicine.
  The Apollo Group bills itself as physician-owned; however, their 
office houses 40 local groups in Atlanta, which also houses 
ValorBridge, a venture capital fund managed by the same person who 
manages the Apollo staffing firm.
  When my office asked PeaceHealth CEO Jim McGovern about the obvious 
conflict, he said: ``That is just a side hustle.'' Uber is a side 
hustle. Corporate practice of medicine is not a side hustle.
  Allowing venture capital firms and hedge funds to siphon money from 
our healthcare system instead of providing quality, affordable, and 
appropriate care to our communities is what is wrong with our 
healthcare system. We need to follow Oregon's lead and make this 
practice illegal.

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