Memorial sues state over angioplasty rules

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital wants the state to reconsider new rules that bar patients from choosing to undergo an elective heart procedure at the hospital.

The hospital filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Health last week in a push to reform current regulations, which the hospital argues are overly restrictive and unfounded.

It's unusual for the state to be sued under federal trade law over licensing decisions, but Memorial chief executive Rick Linneweh said a request for the state agency to reconsider its stance seemed futile.

After a two-year debate with state health officials, "This really was the avenue of last resort," Linneweh said Tuesday evening.

According to the lawsuit, new regulations approved late last year mean that Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center, Memorial's sometime-rival across town, effectively has a monopoly on performing non-emergency angioplasties.

Memorial is arguing that the state's regulations amount to a restraint on trade under federal interstate commerce provisions, a position that a judge will have to consider before the lawsuit can proceed, Linneweh said.

Yakima Regional has said in the past that allowing both hospitals to perform elective angioplasties would be an unnecessary and expensive duplication of services.

Doctors at Memorial already do 165 to 175 emergency angioplasties a year, but they aren't allowed to do the elective procedure because the hospital doesn't have backup open-heart surgery available. If complications develop during an emergency angioplasty at Memorial, the patient is rushed to Regional.

In the procedure, a doctor pushes a balloon through a blocked artery in order to open it.

The state Health Department was served with the lawsuit on Tuesday, and a spokesman for state attorneys said they were still reviewing the allegations.

Donn Moyer, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the regulations were developed after extensive research, including a review by an independent analyst.

Memorial contends that the state has set the bar too high for the number of angioplasties the hospital would have to perform every year to be considered for elective surgery.

Across the country, 43 states use 200 elective procedures as the annual requirement to be considered for elective approval, while Washington set the standard at 300.

Also, the state's formula for approving a second hospital for the non-emergency procedure in the same service area would mean that Memorial could never reach that threshold, the lawsuit contends.

Hospitals are reimbursed between $11,000 and $18,000 for each elective angioplasty.

But Linneweh said he's focused on patient choice instead of money. The state's rule punishes Memorial and leaves patients with only one hospital to choose from in Yakima, he said.

* Information from Yakima Herald-Republic archives is included in this report.

* Mark Morey can be reached at 577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.