Beaumont Cancer Plan Wins State’s Initial OK: Proton Beam Has Edge Over Others

By Patricia Anstett, Detroit Free Press

Jul. 1–Michigan moved a step closer Monday to getting a high-tech proton beam cancer radiation facility, with preliminary approval by the state health department for Beaumont Hospitals’ plan.

Full approval from the Michigan Department of Community Health for the Royal Oak facility could come by Friday.

The decision is a setback for six other area health systems working in a consortium to build a single, shared center.

The consortium, including Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, is expected to proceed with plans for its own site, or one shared by other hospitals.

The state health department has until July 30 to decide on Ford’s proposal. Ford continues to meet with the other six facilities about the joint approach, spokesman Dwight Angell said.

The six systems preferring a shared facility are Ford; Barbara Ann Karmanos Center Institute in Detroit; the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor; McLaren Health Care in Flint; St. Joseph Mercy in Ann Arbor, and Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute in Flint.

Phil Incarnati, president and chief operating officer of McLaren, has had several conversations with Ken Matzick, president and CEO of Beaumont, about possibly collaborating on the planned Royal Oak facility, McLaren spokesman Kevin Tompkins said Monday. McLaren also has put in a bid for a facility. It awaits action from the health department, also by July 30.

Proton beam therapy is a type of radiation that promises fewer complications by delivering varying doses, with the biggest burst at the tumor site, and no exit dose, as occurs in standard radiation. The therapy is used mostly for pediatric tumors and other rare cancers. There are five proton beam facilities in the nation, with 11 in the planning phase.

Beaumont will partner with ProCure Treatment Centers Inc. of Bloomington, Ind., to build a center by 2010. Beaumont would contribute $13 million to the $159-million project. The health system could raise the rest of the money by issuing bonds, attracting investors or by partnering with others for equity shares in the project.

Michigan’s Certificate of Need Commission favored the consortium approach, but on June 19, Gov. Jennifer Granholm threw out the commission’s proposal, saying she was concerned it would delay bringing the technology to Michigan. It was the first time in state history that a governor has rejected a proposed standard from the commission, which studies and helps regulate the purchase or construction of costly facilities and technology in the state.

Several other health systems have submitted proposals for a proton beam facility, though executives at those systems said some were placeholders to ensure they aren’t left out of the running for a center. That was the strategy at Karmanos, which awaits an Aug. 1 deadline from the state on its bid.

The University of Michigan Health System had no further update Monday, a spokeswoman said. It filed a letter of intent to build a facility, a process that gives the state a longer period, until March 2009, to decide on the project.

Contact PATRICIA ANSTETT at panstett@freepress.com.

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