DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — A bill in the state senate would require the private Medical Center at Elizabeth Place and other new hospitals to have 24-hour emergency rooms.

But after meeting with Medical Center's physician owners this week, Senate Bill 120's sponsor said he plans to spare the 26-bed, for-profit hospital from the requirement.

"If folks have invested the time and money and (their hospital) existed prior to this legislation, we shouldn't be able to change the rules on them and hurt them," said state Sen. David Goodman, R-Columbus.

The Medical Center opened in September at the site of the former St. Elizabeth Medical Center on Edwin C. Moses Boulevard after a federal moratorium on specialty hospitals expired a month earlier.

Its owners oppose the bill as it stands, saying an emergency room would hurt the hospital financially and unnecessarily duplicate services that already exist nearby.

"We share a parking lot with the Dayton Heart Hospital, which has a 24-hour emergency room open seven days a week, and we're within less than a mile from probably the best ER in the state (at Miami Valley Hospital), so it's really silly," Medical Center Chairman Dr. John Fleishman said.

While welcoming the news that the bill might spare his hospital, Fleishman said the legislation appears to be another "roadblock" designed by hospital lobbyists to stop physicians from owning and operating their own hospitals.

Goodman, state Sen. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, a co-sponsor of the bill, and the Ohio Hospital Association argue that private, for-profit hospitals will cherry pick profitable cases while leaving nonprofit hospitals the task and tab for charity care. They say the bill attempts to "level the playing field."

"I think the bigger issues is, No.1, from a competition standpoint: What are these specialty hospitals bringing to the table?" Austria said.

Secondly, it makes sense that hospitals have emergency rooms, both lawmakers said.

The bill also would require all hospitals to maintain Medicaid and Medicare provider agreements. A hearing is scheduled for next week.