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==Background==
For years, Baptist Health Care has sought to move its service away from its main facility, [[Baptist Hospital]], which is located near Pensacola's urban core and provides indigent care for a large number of low-income patients. The hospital averages about 50 percent occupancy at any given time,<ref name="newhospital">"Baptist plans new hospital." ''Pensacola News Journal'', January 15, 2004.</ref> and Baptist has sought to transfer some of its allowed acute medical care beds from Baptist Hospital to other branches in more affluent neighborhoods. However, such a transfer is only allowed after following the state's Certificate of Need process, overseen by the Agency for Health Care Administration, which has repeatedly denied requests by Baptist Health Care. Baptist officials have consistently argued that the process is anticompetitive and overly regulatory, and that the ability to serve more "paying customers" would offset losses and increase their financial capacity to provide charity care.
In [[2000]], a state legislative amendment that would have benefitted Baptist Health Care with a specific Certificate of Need exemption was submitted (and quickly withdrawn) under State Representative [[Durell Peaden]]'s name, though he denied any knowledge of it and claimed "[a] lot of amendments get filed with my name on them … people think if they put my name on them, they'll pass."<ref name="hard2believe">"Editorial: Hard to believe amendment story." ''Pensacola News Journal'', May 17, 2000.</ref> Baptist admitted that their lobbyist authored the amendment, but would not identify the sponsor. State Representative [[Jerry Maygarden]] was suspected of submitting it, as he was a senior Baptist executive and an outspoken critic of the Certificate of Need process; he insisted, however, "that was not my amendment and that was not my language."<ref name="hard2believe"/>
The bill passed quickly, and Maygarden's amendment survived Governor [[Wikipedia:Jeb Bush|Jeb Bush]]'s line-item vetoes. After a coalition of Baptist's competitors filed suit, the law was declared unconstitutional by Leon County Circuit Judge Kevin Davey, who wrote in his ruling, "[t]he statute does not pertain to a matter of statewide importance, nor can the statute reasonably be construed to be a demonstration project."<ref>"Baptist Hospital beds won't be moving around." ''Pensacola News Journal'', December 20, 2001.</ref>
In [[2004]], Baptist announced plans to build a $60 million hospital adjacent to its [[Baptist Medical Park - Nine Mile]] facility, which would house 96 beds transferred from the main Baptist Hospital campus. The transfer would have been the result of a coalition with 12 about a dozen other Florida hospitals who wanted legislative approval to transfer already licensed hospital beds to other facilities without exemption from the requisite Certificate of Needprocess.<ref name="newhospital"/> The plans were again opposed by the other area health care providers — especially [[West Florida Healthcare]], whose [[West Florida Hospital]] averaged only 33 percent occupancy and would have been less than a mile from the new hospital.<ref>"Hospitals at odds." ''Pensacola News Journal'', February 8, 2004.</ref> The [[Santa Rosa County Commission]] considered opposing the legislation on behalf of [[Santa Rosa Medical Center]], which would have been impacted by a new hospital nearby, but ultimately did not take action. The legislation was withdrawn. However, in the same year, Baptist successfully lobbied to exempt Escambia County (among five others) from a "grow in place" bill that would have benefitted competitors like [[Sacred Heart Health System|Sacred Heart]] by allowing them to expand at existing facilities without state permission.<ref>"Bill keeps Baptist Hospital competitors at current size." ''Pensacola News Journal'', March 26, 2004.</ref> In [[2006]], Baptist Health Care was said to be in talks with [[West Florida Healthcare]] about collaborating to improve their services and reduce costs. According to West Florida president and CEO [[Dennis Taylor]], "We're trying to find ways to work together. If we can find ways to work together, it saves the community a tremendous amount of resources."<ref>"Hospital officials mulling alliance." ''Pensacola News Journal'', July 12, 2006.</ref> These discussions were never formalized and were called off weeks later, as West Florida's parent company HCA was in the midst of a pending $33 billion buyout by a group of private investors.<ref>"Hospital alliance talks off." ''Pensacola News Journal'', August 5, 2006.</ref>
==2008 plans==