State Sen. Cheryl Pflug and several health care facilities are on a collision course over a freestanding emergency room Senate bill in Olympia.

Pflug, R-Maple Valley, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5515 that would place a two-year moratorium on the construction of freestanding emergency departments. During the moratorium period the legislature would study whether the state should impose regulations on the construction of freestanding emergency rooms.

Pflug, who is a registered nurse and is also working on a law degree at Seattle University, said by phone Tuesday evening she believes the emergency facilities are being built as “profit centers     and we need to build good primary care systems.”

There are two freestanding emergency departments proposed for construction in Covington. MultiCare is planing to built one on the site where the Urgent Care clinic is located. MultiCare also has plans to build a 58-bed hospital on the site.

MultiCare received approval of its certificate of need request from the state Department of Health in December for the hospital.

Valley Medical Center is also planning to build a freestanding emergency department in the town center area behind Safeway and Fred Meyer.

Both emergency departments are expected to begin construction this year.

If the bill passes and is signed by the governor, both facilities would be halted until July 1, 2013 while the Legislature conducts a study.

According to the current legislation, the moratorium would not apply if the plans for an emergency department were approved by the Department of Health by Jan. 1. Neither MultiCare’s nor Valley’s emergency departments plans have been sent to the department for approval.

The Senate bill was voted out of the Health and Long-Term Care Committee and it is currently in the Rules Committee. Pflug said she has more work to do before it can get placed in the queue for a debate or vote on the Senate floor.

“Some of the hospitals are really cranking up the lobbying effort,” Pflug said.

The senator said this is an issue she has been “concerned about for a while. Affordability is really the issue. Another issue is quality of care. Seeing people in emergency rooms is not a good system. Primary care is better. Keeping them well rather than waiting until it gets out of hand.”

Hugh Kodama, administrator for the Covington MultiCare Clinic, stated the health care facility is opposing the legislation.

Kodama said he agrees the use of emergency rooms are expensive.

“We agree, we want to decrease the use of emergency rooms,” Kodama said. “We are trying to provide the care needed and for a lower cost. We want to give different layers of care.”

Kodama said MultiCare offers a consulting nurse service a person can call when the clinic is closed and an on-call doctor can also be consulted over the phone before making a trip to an emergency room.

According to Kodama the proposed emergency department in Covington fills a need in the community, along with the hospital and other levels of care.

“When you think of the future of health care we don’t think we will be incentivized to bring patients into the most expensive setting, but the most appropriate,” Kodama said.

Covington City Manager Derek Matheson also noted Covington residents lack health care services.

“Our comprehensive plan identified health care centers as key to growing our economy and creating an urban downtown,” Matheson said.

The city manager said the moratorium would created an “undue burden on our city. This would stop two pending emergency department projects and could impact the (MultiCare) hospital.”

Valley is also opposing the bill. Paul Hayes, executive vice president at Valley, wrote in an e-mail, “our plan for a free standing emergency department is consistent with our overall strategy of providing access to life saving services closer for our district residents…. Given the current regulations and ongoing review by the Department of Health and other regulatory bodies, we do not believe additional regulations are warranted.”

Pflug contends the emergency rooms are very profitable because advanced approval for many procedures necessary for most insurance plans is suspended when a person goes to an emergency room.

The senator said, “This is the reason they are calling them emergency rooms rather than urgent care. I submit if these were urgent care (facilities) you wouldn’t be hearing from me.”

Pflug said the bill has received bipartisan support. She noted that emergency room services cause insurance premiums to rise. According to the senator because insurance providers pay higher costs for procedures provided in emergency settings, the costs are factored into the rates everyone pays.