Hospitals Team Up for Project

Michigan’s Certificate of Need Commission will meet today to review progress by a group of six hospitals that have proposed working together to build a new high-tech cancer treatment center estimated to cost $160 million.

The collaboration comes after the CON commission last month shot down Royal Oaks-based William Beaumont Hospitals’ proposal to build a similar facility for its own use in partnership with a for-profit Indiana company.

In rejecting that proposal — which critics said would spark an “arms race” of competition among state hospitals — the CON commission changed its rules so that only one proton beam treatment center can be built in the state. The commission also urged the group of six hospitals, selected because of the size of their radiation departments, to put together their own proposal to build the state-of-the-art facility in lieu of Beaumont’s proposal.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm could veto the CON rule change, but that is considered unlikely as she has said in the past she is in favor of the collaboration, which is led by the University of Michigan Health System. Beaumont Hospitals is reportedly putting together its own consortium to push forward with its proposal.

Last week, the University of Michigan-led group met a June 5 deadline to commit $13 million in seed money to the project. This week consortium members are expected to sign contracts with each other. The group has until Sept. 6 to come up with a comprehensive business plan to get the center built.

The six participants in the consortium are the University of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System, the Karmanos Cancer Institute, Trinity Health’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Great Lakes Cancer Institute’s McLaren Campus, and the Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute in Grand Blanc.

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