With recent news on Monday that the Trump Administration is urging states to scale back their Certificate-of-Need (“CON”) laws, please refer back to my blog post dated May 8th, 2018, where I talked about the very subject of CON laws:
Archaic state Certificate-of-Need (“CON”) laws impede competition and raise prices. They require healthcare providers to get permission from the state to add technology or expand services in the state. Studies have shown that even in the fee-for-service payment environment, state CON laws result in lower value and higher cost to the consumer. Under payment reform and in the value-based care environment, these protectionist anti-competitive laws make no sense whatsoever. It’s no secret that the state CON laws are largely supported by the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals because they prevent competition from new, innovative, higher value participants in the healthcare delivery space. Any legislation that is passed in Congress to help subsidize state high-risk pools through block grants or otherwise should require the elimination of the anti-competitive state CON laws.
Sounds like the politicians in Washington are finally starting to understand that these various CON laws are nothing more than competition stifling and NOT in the best interest of the country, the healthcare sector, OR the patients we serve. They need to be done away with ASAP!!!
