BY JIM HALL
HCA has been frustrated in its plan to add a cancer service at its new Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center.
Now, it doesn't want MediCorp Health System to have a new cancer service, either.
HCA this week sent an e-mail to supporters, encouraging them to attend a public hearing tomorrow to oppose MediCorp's plans.
"Please come to the September 11 public hearing and let the regulators know that SRMC needs comprehensive cancer services before MediCorp is authorized for an additional therapy unit," the e-mail said.
The Virginia Department of Health is sponsoring the hearing on a proposal by MediCorp to build a cancer center beside Mary Washington Hospital. The $11 million center would offer advanced radiation treatment for cancer patients.
HCA would like to provide similar services when it opens its new Spotsylvania hospital next year. But the state health commissioner ruled that the company missed a crucial deadline when it tried to file an application this spring.
And unless a court overturns the commissioner's decision, the missed deadline could prove costly.
As the company told supporters in its e-mail: "If MediCorp is approved now, it may be many years before SRMC will be able to offer comprehensive cancer services."
So the company is trying to regain lost ground.
It has gone to court in Richmond to appeal the state's decision that its application was late. The case will be heard in Richmond Circuit Court Sept. 21.
And HCA is attacking MediCorp's plan as an extension of its "monopoly."
"Our main goal is to get cancer services at Spotsylvania," said Susan Salyer, spokeswoman for the hospital. "Without radiation therapy at Spotsylvania, the cancer patients in the area won't have the benefit of having the choice and the access."
MediCorp officials defend their plan as providing a needed service.
"What we're doing is increasing our scope of services to a community that needs it," said Walt Kiwall, MediCorp's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "It's not an expansion of a monopoly. It's an obligation to the community."
Currently, area cancer patients have one option for radiation therapy: MediCorp's Cancer Center of Virginia on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania.
MediCorp and HCA each requested a permit for a new cancer service last year. But Dr. Karen Remley, the health commissioner, denied both.
Remley ruled in January that the Fredericksburg area did not need two more linear accelerators, the machines used to deliver radiation to cancerous tumors.
State guidelines require that a linear accelerator do a minimum of 8,000 treatments a year before another will be approved. The two accelerators at the Cancer Center did about 7,500 treatments each in 2008.
MediCorp waited three months after the commissioner's decision and filed a second application for the same service.
This time, it suggested that the center be located in a new building beside Mary Washington Hospital.
HCA tried to file a competing application but missed the deadline, according to the state.
The company disagrees, saying that its application was timely. And last week it told its supporters, "MediCorp should not enjoy a windfall from the regulator's error."
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
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The Virginia Department of Health will hear public comment tomorrow on MediCorp Health System's proposal for a new cancer center beside Mary Washington Hospital.
The public hearing will be The proposed cancer center would be located in a new building at the traffic circle The center would offer advanced radiation therapy, including stereotactic radiosurgery for brain tumors. If approved, it would open in August 2011.
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MediCorp's proposed cancer service represents the second time that HCA has opposed one of its projects.
HCA also blocked, at least temporarily, MediCorp's application for a cardiac catheterization lab at Stafford Hospital Center. MediCorp's proposal was endorsed by local and regional advisory groups and by a Health Department analyst. A final decision by the state health commissioner is expected soon. |