By Jordan Gentile
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - Ohio lawmakers on Thursday advanced a bill that would freeze construction of specialty hospitals for two years. It won't affect a proposed heart hospital in Norwood.

The Ohio House voted 72-23 on the moratorium so experts could study whether a new breed of hospitals specializing in heart and orthopedic surgeries siphons the most profitable procedures from large community hospitals.

Advocates say specialty hospitals will practice better medicine because they can focus on one kind of care. Critics fear specialty hospitals will treat easy and profitable cases, leaving community hospitals with the rest.

Several new specialty hospitals could still be built during the moratorium, as long as their paperwork was filed with the state by Sept. 15. The date, pushed back from June 30, would allow a $50 million to $60 million heart hospital to be built in Norwood.

"We're very pleased," said Mark McDonald, chief operating officer of the area's biggest cardiology group, the Ohio Heart Health Center, which is developing the Cincinnati Heart and Vascular Hospital with Deaconess Hospital.

Pushing back the deadline, he said, will allow the 60-bed hospital center to "raise the bar for health care" in the Cincinnati area when it opens in 2005.

The Ohio Hospital Association originally wanted lawmakers to prevent doctors from referring their patients to specialty hospitals in which they are investors. The hospital group settled for the temporary freeze.

"We're glad there's a proposal of some kind that will stop the proliferation of these clinics," said Mary Yost, the association's spokeswoman. "It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing."

The Ohio State Medical Association, which represents doctors, opposes the bill. It argues that specialty hospitals could be studied without a freeze on construction.

Lobbyist Tim Maglione also said a part of the bill intended to stop hospitals from punishing doctors who refer patients to specialty clinics is riddled with loopholes that would allow administrators to yank doctors' employment privileges.

"For more than 100 years, hospitals have (employed) physicians based on competence, not economics," Maglione said. "We think it should always be that way."

House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, who was instrumental in crafting the bill, said the compromise was fair.

"When you have two groups such as doctors and community hospitals that are fighting for patients, that doesn't speak well for your health care system," Householder said. "We've got to call a time out and set up a fair system."

Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, wouldn't guarantee an easy road when the bill gets to his chamber.

Some provisions of the specialty hospital bill:

• Specialty hospitals that filed a letter of intent to build before Sept. 15 must get all necessary building permits within a year of announcing that intent.

• The bill says long-term acute care facilities will not be defined as "specialty hospitals."

• The Dayton Heart Hospital will not be affected by the bill because it provides emergency room and obstetrics services.