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==Expansion==
{{main|Baptist Health Care expansion}}
For years, Baptist Health Care has sought to expand its service away from its main [[Baptist Hospital]] campus, 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 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.
On four occasions, Baptist has lobbied to receive special legislative exemption from the Certificate of Need process. For many years they had an ally in [[Jerry Maygarden]], a top Baptist executive and Republican majority leader of the State House of Representatives, but efforts to transfer about 100 beds to a new hospital near their [[Nine Mile Road]] [[Baptist Medical Park - Nine Mile|medical park]] were never successful.
On [[June 26]], [[2008]], two years after holding brief talks about collaborating with [[West Florida Healthcare]], Baptist Health Care announced an [[Baptist Health Care expansion|expansion project]] that included acquiring [[West Florida Hospital]] for $245 million, plus $85 million in new construction. The project was set to move forward, but after a major [[Wikipedia:Subprime mortgage crisis|credit crisis]] made it difficult to obtain the necessary financing, the plans were called off at the beginning of [[2009]] — with an estimated $8 million lost in forfeited earnest money.<ref>"Cost of merger collapse: $8 million." ''Pensacola News Journal'', January 4, 2008.</ref>
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==References==
