Committee delays action on hospital pushed by comedian

Thursday, March 27, 2003 | 8:45 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Despite a ringing endorsement by entertainer Jerry Lewis on Wednesday, a bill that would allow a new specialty spine-pain hospital to be built in his hometown of Las Vegas stalled in the Senate Committee on Human Resources.

Lewis, who was moved around the Legislature in a wheelchair, endorsed the plans of Dr. Benjamin H. Venger for a 15-bed hospital that would also be a research center.

Lewis told the Senate Human Resources and Facilities Committee that because he could find no help for severely painful spinal injuries, he had contemplated suicide.

But last April he received a battery-powered neurostimulator that has stopped the pain by delivering electronic impulses to his spinal cord -- damaged by years of pratfalls he took in his comedy routines.

Holding up the device, which looks like a TV remote control, Lewis couldn't resist a gag:

"And it also opens my garage door," he said, turning to the hearing room audience. "Did I get any laughs back there?"

Lewis spoke in favor of Senate Bill 156, which would provide a narrow exception to a state ban on doctors referring patients to medical facilities in which a doctor has a financial interest.

The measure was sought by Venger, who told lawmakers he would build the Jerry Lewis Spine and Pain Center in Las Vegas and open it within two years.

But Venger, a neurosurgeon who specializes in pain control, said he needs the legislation to move ahead with the small speciality hospital -- which would be one of just three in the nation.

The proposal is endorsed by the Medtronic Inc., the company that manufactures the device that helped Lewis. It is also endorsed by the Nevada Development Authority, the UNLV Research Foundation and a company called Medtronic that manufactures devices that relieve intense pain.

The bill's chief sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, offered amendments to ensure the bill wouldn't result in the sort of abuses that produced the state law that bans doctors from referrals to their own facilities.

Titus said that even with the exemption, Nevada laws governing such activity are tougher than those in most other states.

But the Nevada Hospital Association opposed SB156, warning that specialty hospitals would not be required to have emergency rooms and other required services that are often not profitable.

Jim Wadhams of the Nevada Hospital Association said the state's existing policy has to be considered. He said there's a concern that speciality hospitals could avoid state and federal mandates to provide emergency care.

If the state encourages the subdividing of hospitals into various medical specialties, "it may have unintended consequences," Wadhams said.

At first it looked like Wadhams had been no match for Lewis. Before Lewis and the other proponents got out the door, Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, moved for approval of the bill. And Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, agreed to a request to move the effective date of the bill from Oct. 1 to when the governor signs it.

But some senators said they wanted more information on the issue.

Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, said she was not ready to vote and wanted to look into the possible "unintended consequences" of the bill. Sens. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, and Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, also said they wanted more time.

Nolan and Washington expressed concern that passage of the bill would open the door to other, similar hospitals being approved.

Titus said she crafted the present law 11 years ago to prevent doctors from making excessive referrals to hospitals in which they had a financial interest. She said this bill would create a "narrow" exception to the law and has the potential of putting Las Vegas on the map for something other than gambling.

Venger, a longtime Las Vegas physician, said there are similar centers in the South and Midwest. He said the center could be located downtown in a proposed medical complex.

Brad Hancock, executive vice president for a division of Medtronic, explained outside the hearing that the device Lewis has is designed to stop pain from reaching the brain.

Venger said the proposed facility would team up with UNLV for research. He said he approached other hospitals in Las Vegas to see if they wanted to start such a unit and all of them declined.