By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) — A Georgia state senator has introduced legislation to repeal Georgia’s certificate of need law.
State Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, introduced Senate Bill 162. It would repeal the CON requirement for all health care facilities except certain long-term care facilities and services.
The move follows a six-figure campaign from Americans for Prosperity-Georgia to encourage lawmakers to repeal the CON requirement. The General Assembly established Georgia’s CON program in 1979, though state officials started reviewing health care projects in 1975.
“This is the year to repeal Georgia’s certificate of need laws,” AFP-GA Deputy State Director Tony West said in a statement. “These burdensome regulations limit access to quality care and drive up prices.
“What this means is that it is nearly impossible to add beds for mental health treatment, buy a new x-ray machine, or open a hospital in a rural part of Georgia,” West added. “…By ending Georgia’s certificate-of-need laws, we will usher in a new era of affordable patient choice.”
In 2021, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found that repealing the CON requirement would increase the number of hospitals in Georgia from 176 to 250 and the number of rural hospitals in the state from 61 to 88.
The Medical Association of Georgia has previously indicated that the CON requirement is “anti-competitive.” The Georgia Hospital Association did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation.
Monty Veazey, president and CEO of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals, said eliminating the CON requirement would “destabilize hospitals” in the state.
“Georgia boasts a tried-and-true CON law that worked for more than 40 years to ensure access to hospital care. Updates to the law in recent years have provided additional flexibility,” Veazey said in a statement to The Center Square. “Any legislation that removed CON’s safeguards would destabilize hospitals and doom some to closing their doors. This is not about promoting competition. Hospitals proudly serve all patients, no matter their condition or ability to pay, and that mission becomes economically unfeasible if profitable procedures and paying customers are cannibalized by new facilities that don’t play by the same rules of charity care.
“Studies by the renowned hospital finance firm Cleverley & Associates have shown that Georgia’s CON laws lead to lower costs for patients as compared to other states with similar demographics.
“It is of the highest priority that CON be retained to continue providing high-quality health care that Georgians deserve, and to protect our local economies, especially in rural areas, where a hospital failure impacts hundreds of jobs,” Veazey added.
