In Brunswick, Mid Coast Hospital and Central Maine Healthcare, which oversees Parkview Hospital, are clashing over which can provide the community’s medical needs more efficiently.

Mid Coast says its plan – a $3.5 million urgent/diagnostic care facility – would let it serve Brunswick by itself, for $18.5 million less than running Parkview for a year. Mid Coast also wants Parkview – in its alliance with CMHC – to be considered like a new hospital by the state.

CMHC spokesman Chuck Gill said this is “just another dumb idea from Mid Coast,” according to the Brunswick Times-Record. Their plan is about running Parkview, Gill said – out of business.

The state’s in the middle of this. Through the certificate of need process- for which hospitals must prove their need for certain capital projects – the state has become the referee for this Mid Coast/Parkview skirmish.

Few things in Maine are studied more than health care. Many task forces and committees have generated myriad ideas about how to improve its affordability, access and delivery.

The Maine State Health Plan – all 124 pages of it – for example, has multiple recommendations for bettering health and health care. Some of its findings are interesting, like Maine has more health care services than the national average and treatment costs vary from 20 to 60 percent across hospitals.

“The State Health Plan is more than a written document,” it says. “It represents the hope of Maine people to have better health and access to quality and affordable health care.”

These hopes are needed. Maine is second in the nation in health care spending per-capita, and medical costs for Maine families increased three times faster than wages from 2001 to 2005.

The state has a prime interest in fostering efficiencies and cost savings, where it can, in the health care system. And so far, a multitude of resources and time have been spent on drafting strategies for doing it.

Applying them is next. This is what’s going to happen in Brunswick.

Mid Coast says the Parkview proposal runs counter to the State Health Plan. The state, too, has been stingy with certificates of need. The efficacy of two hospitals in Brunswick has been questioned.

This is why this dispute is worth watching. This situation is a chance for the state to put its health care principles into practice. How it’s settled could shape future hospital projects.

And, perhaps, Maine’s health care plans in general.