Don't get rid of health planning board

Can we make a case for doing away with a state board that decides whether hospitals and other health-care companies can expand, close or change services offered? Let us count the ways:

1. Illinois' latest corruption scandal featured Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a friend of Gov. Blagojevich, shaking down hospitals that wanted their projects approved by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which at the time was headed by a governor appointee backed by Rezko.

2. Think you know where your project stands? Wait a few months. After being told by the board earlier this year that its proposed proton therapy cancer treatment center was headed for rejection, Central DuPage Hospital won approval last week to build the center in Warrenville - even though Northern Illinois University is building another one a few miles away.

3. Regulatory approval can take years and armies of lawyers, so health-care cost reductions - the goal of the Health Facilities Planning Board when it formed in the 1970s - are down the drain.

So, yes, it's easy to argue for doing away with the board, the sometimes-capricious approval process and the whole notion that the state should regulate where and what hospitals offer. Plenty of local voices would join that chorus, including many in Plainfield who've hoped for a new hospital since 2003. Denied in August, Edward Hospital plans to modify that proposal and try again.

It's easy to make the argument - but we won't, and we hope an Illinois task force named to reform the process won't, either.

It's obvious the process has to change. But Illinois must continue to oversee hospitals' building plans, if for no other reason than to make certain underprivileged communities retain hospital services and that unprofitable functions, like emergency rooms and trauma centers, don't grow scarce for all of us.

The hospitals themselves favor regulation and have some common-sense goals we support, like setting clear rules so applicants can predict whether the building project they envision is likely to pass muster. The Illinois Hospital Association also proposes enlarging the board so there's always a quorum that can act on proposals, reducing delays. And, says Howard Peters, IHA senior vice president of governmental relations, we need to let some less-ambitious projects bypass the approval process.

Whether reforms like these would cut health-care costs is anyone's guess. But if it's a step toward equity, timeliness and a fair distribution of health-care services, it will be a big improvement.