Georgia senators began examining on Tuesday whether the state should still require permits to build health care facilities, after a push to loosen the rules mushroomed into a House-Senate standoff during this year’s legislative session.
The first meeting made clear that many committee members appointed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones want a full or partial repeal of Georgia’s certificate of need rules.
“Georgians would be better off if the Peach State would join the states that do not have CON (certificate of need) laws,” said Thomas Stratmann, a professor at Virginia’s George Mason University. One of the study committee’s invited witnesses, Stratmann works with the Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank.
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But senators are unlikely to have the final word. The state House has its own study committee, which will begin meeting later. What each chamber wants is unlikely to become clear until legislation is introduced for the 2024 legislative session.
Certificates of need, in place in Georgia since the 1970s, require someone who wants to build a new health facility or offer new services to prove an expansion is needed. The permits are meant to prevent overspending that would increase health care costs.
But incumbent hospitals and health care providers often oppose new developments. Those who dislike the certificates say the law has outlived its usefulness because the government and insurers now seek to control costs by negotiating prices in advance. Instead, they say certificates prevent needed competition and prop up existing health care facilities’ revenues.
“When hospitals enjoy this monopoly, everybody pays more,” said Barry Herrin, an Atlanta health care lawyer.
While some states have repealed certificate-of-need laws, Georgia is among 34 states and the District of Columbia still using them.
The Georgia Hospital Association argues that the law is needed, at…
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