Seventeen physicians whose staff privileges at Grant, Riverside, and Doctors Hospitals in Columbus were withdrawn because of their investments in the New Albany Surgical Hospital filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court against Ohio Health Corporation, parent of the community institutions. The doctors challenged Ohio Health's adoption of a resolution stating that for profit-specialty hospitals unfairly competed and undermined community hospitals, and were incompatible with staff membership or privileges at Grant, Riverside and Doctors. The complaint alleged breach of contract, and the physicians contend Ohio Health imposed its new rules regarding conflict of interest in a discriminatory manner. The suit asks the court to order Ohio Health to let the doctors continue to exercise their staff privileges at Grant, Riverside and Doctors Hospitals; to declare that the Ohio Health conflict of interest resolution violates state law; and seeks damages through a jury trial. The litigation is the latest development in a continuing battle between community and specialty hospitals, one aspect of which was temporarily resolved when Congress established an 18-month moratorium on construction of new specialty centers. The moratorium, included as part of the Medicare prescription drug bill, grand-fathered in existing facilities such as New Albany Surgical Hospital, and provided for a study of the effect of such centers on full-service hospitals.