Spinal-pain hospital approved by panel

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Over the objections of the Nevada Hospital Association, a Senate committee voted 6-1 Monday to allow a spinal injury treatment and pain management hospital to open in Las Vegas.

The committee imposed a number of restrictions on Senate Bill 156 so there could not be a proliferation of specialty hospitals for at least six years, committee members said.

Benjamin H. Venger and his partner, Jeff Simmons, plan an $18 million to $20 million, 15-bed hospital that could be located downtown, they said.

It would be called the Jerry Lewis Spine and Pain Hospital, after the entertainer who has been a supporter of the effort.

Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, said the bill would open a "big can of worms," saying it would not be a full-service hospital that must maintain emergency rooms to treat Medicaid, Medicare and patients without insurance.

He said specialty physicians, as they become involved with their own clinics, would not be on-call for full-service hospitals, but Venger, a neurosurgeon, said he would still be on-call for neurological services.

"I can't practice without an acute general hospital," he said.

The current law limits a physician from referring a patient to a hospital in which the doctor has a financial interest. The new terms would permit the doctor to refer a patient to a hospital in which he has invested if it has no more than 15 beds, is located in Clark County and specializes in neurosurgery, the spine and the control of pain.