An update on the Georgia "bed tax" that would levy a 1.45% tax on hospital and ambulatory surgical center net patient revenues: By a 135 to 23 vote, lawmakers removed the state's 238 physician-owned and joint-ventured ASCs from the measure yesterday, says Kathy Browning, executive director of the Georgia Society of the American College of Surgeons.

"We were able to get this legislation amended because of the grassroots efforts of the Georgia surgeons and the physician owners of ASCs," says Ms. Browning.

The state's hospitals and 56 wholly hospital-owned ASCs remain in the bill. In exchange for the tax, expected to raise more than $225 million a year to pay for Medicaid services, hospitals will get a higher rate of Medicaid reimbursement.

Dan O'Connor