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Legislation containing the most significant reforms in decades to Georgia’s law governing hospital construction and new medical services is on its way to Gov. Brian Kemp.
The General Assembly give final passage late Thursday to a bill loosening restrictions in Georgia’s Certificate of Need (CON) law.
The state House of Representatives passed the measure 95-68, followed a short time later by the Georgia Senate, which passed it 34-17. Both votes were largely along party lines in the Republican-controlled chambers after legislative Democrats argued it doesn’t go far enough to increase access to quality health care.
House Bill 1339 makes fewer far-reaching changes to the CON law than a version of the legislation the Senate passed on March 14. The Senate measure had drawn substantial opposition from the hospital industry and patient advocacy groups.
“This bill is not perfect,” Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, the measure’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues shortly before Thursday’s vote. “But it’s a great start in the right direction.”
The CON law requires applicants wishing to build a new health-care facility or provide a new medical service to demonstrate to the state Department of Community Health that the facility or service is needed in that community.
The General Assembly passed the law in 1979 to comply with a federal mandate aimed at reducing health-care costs by avoiding duplication, but Congress repealed the federal statute in 1986. By 1990, 11 states – including California and Texas – had done away with their state CON laws.
The law’s opponents have long argued the CON process is so time-consuming, cumbersome, and expensive that it delays and sometimes blocks efforts to boost access to health care. The…
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