By Janice Francis-Smith The Journal Record 10/26/2006 OKLAHOMA CITY – A lobbyist for specialty hospitals stands ready to do battle again in 2007. Lobbyist Patrick Gaines represents the Independent Medical Providers Action Council of Oklahoma Inc., also called IMPAC. Members include about 15 of Oklahoma’s 140 specialty hospitals, medical facilities that focus only on specific procedures, such as heart surgery. In Oklahoma and nationwide, the proliferation of specialty hospitals has raised concern among some health care officials, particularly advocates of large general hospitals. Some analysts find general hospitals increasingly lose lucrative procedures like heart surgeries to specialty hospitals. General hospitals use such revenue to offset money lost providing emergency care for people with little or no health insurance. On the other hand, specialty hospitals often rate higher in patient care and customer service surveys. A temporary federal moratorium lifted this year had prevented construction of specialty hospitals for nearly two years as health care professionals studied the impact such facilities had on the industry. With that moratorium ended, analysts foresee construction of more specialty facilities in the near future. Gains expects some industry leaders will seek both federal and state legislation to slow that growth. In past years, Oklahoma legislators failed to pass bills requiring specialty hospitals provide a mandated level of charity care for the uninsured or underinsured. The last one considered proposed both specialty and general hospitals pay into a fund to leverage federal Medicaid dollars. Specialty facilities opposed the measure on principle, said Gains, since the fund would primarily benefit general hospitals. On the federal level, some have called for reinstating the moratorium. "Congress can talk about something for years and never do anything about it,” said Gaines. “We hope it stays just talk." Posted at 10/27/2006 03:52:00 PM