Limited CON Reforms Head to Full Senate for Vote | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal, and written by Julie Havlak.


    A push to reform North Carolina's certificate-of-need restrictions on health providers will make it to the Senate floor.

    A watered-down version of CON reform laws, House Bill 126, passed the Senate Rules Committee Tuesday, July 2.

    CON laws require hospitals and providers to apply to the state planning board for permission whenever they build or expand facilities. Critics of certificate of need laws argue the regulations hurt patients, drive up costs, and restrict access to health care.

    H.B. 126 would lift CON laws from psychiatric facilities, chemical dependency treatment facilities, certain continuing care facilities, and kidney disease treatment facilities, among others. The bill also would raise the monetary threshold for buying medical equipment, diagnostic centers, and health facilities. Facilities now must get CON permission for spending more than $750,000 on a piece of equipment. Under this bill, they could spend up to $2 million without applying for CON permission.

    "We are the fourth-most regulated state on CON," said Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth. "Those adjustments have not been made since 1993. This is just medical inflation that we are increasing the thresholds."

    The committee cut the most controversial reform from the bill, the deregulation of ambulatory surgery centers - outpatient facilities providing services that cost less than those performed by hospital outpatient departments.

    The bill still faced opposition from kidney dialysis providers, who argued deregulating kidney dialysis centers would reduce rural access to health care.

    "This is important, because people undergoing dialysis go three times a week for four hours a time to be dialyzed," said lobbyist John Bode, who represented Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "The idea that getting CON out of the game is going to help them is absolutely not so."

    Supporters of the bill say lifting CON regulations would expand rural access to health care by making it easier to build or expand medical facilities and, thereby, meet demand.

    "This bill is the very vanilla version of CON, the noncontroversial version," said Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell. "I understand that every time you get a market that is protected by state law, you're going to fight to protect that market. But most of us believe that competition meets the needs of most individuals."

    After the federal government repealed its CON mandate in 1986, 14 states jettisoned CON laws. North Carolina is one of 36 states which kept CON laws on health providers in place.

    "The federal government abolished it back in the '80s because they realized that it didn't do what they have intended. The other states have responded by repealing it or at least portions of it. North Carolina has done nothing," Krawiec said. "It is time for us to get in line with the rest of the country to improve access to care."

    Even though the bill passed the House by a 112-0 vote, it would have to return to that chamber if the Senate approves the amended version.
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




A Midyear North Carolina Snapshot Carolina Journal, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics Special Congressional District 3 2nd Primary Daily Vote Totals for July 2


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

Pope Francis lambasted leftist gender ideology during an address this week, warning that it presented an extreme danger to mankind.
amnesty would just encourage more illegal aliens to storm our borders
The Christmas candy was barely off the shelves when the Valentine’s candy appeared. Red and pink hearts with caramel and nut-filled chocolate goodness caught our eye. We are reminded of how we love love. Young love, especially.
far left sugar daddy has also funded anti-Israel groups and politicians in US
Be careful what you wish for, you may get it

HbAD1

America needs to wake up and get its priorities right
Former President Donald Trump suggested this week that if he becomes president again, he might allow Prince Harry to be deported.
It's a New Year, which means it's time to make resolutions — even for prominent evangelical leaders. The Babylon Bee asked the following well-known figures in the faith what they hope to accomplish in 2024:
Vice President Kamala Harris will visit a Minnesota Planned Parenthood clinic, reportedly the first time a president or vice president has visited an abortion facility.
An eight-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville has been temporarily closed due to a string of “human and bear interactions,” the National Parks Service announced.
University of Wisconsin tried to punish conservatives for the fact that liberals regularly commit crimes to silence opposition

HbAD2

most voters think EU officials not doing a good job on illegal immigration

HbAD3

 
Back to Top