Georgia CON committee doesn’t yield details about mandate’s success, chair says | Georgia

(The Center Square) — The first assembly of a Georgia committee exploring whether or not to abolish the state’s Certificate of Need requirement for hospitals and well being care amenities did not yield information about the mandate’s advantages, the committee’s chair mentioned.

The Senate Study Committee on Certificate of Need Reform is exploring whether or not lawmakers will have to exchange or abolish the state’s program.

“One major takeaway from this first meeting was the glaring lack of information on the success of CON programs nationwide,” state Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, mentioned in a commentary.

“I hope that we are able to bridge this gap in information to better understand and compare the benefits and shortcomings of such programs,” Dolezal added. “This was a very impactful and eye-opening first meeting, and I am hopeful that by the end of this year we can come to a consensus that benefits our citizens’ health and well-being first.”

CON regulations emerged within the Nineteen Seventies after Congress handed law permitting the government to withhold budget from states that didn’t determine the mandate. While Congress repealed the federal incentives for CONs about a decade later, officers mentioned the Peach State is one in all 34 national with this type of requirement.

“The effectiveness of CON laws should be really measured by their outcomes, not by their intended goals,” Thomas Stratmann, a senior analysis fellow on the Mercatus Center and economics professor at George Mason University, advised the committee. “Even the best-intended laws might not lead to the desired result and might yield unintended consequences.

“…It seems that states with CON regulations have much less affected person get admission to to hospital treatment, decrease high quality of clinical services and products,” Stratmann added. “Also, on this context, it is vital … to notice that CON regulations should not have any public well being justification. That is, CON necessities don’t have anything to do with public well being or protection. So, the information display fewer hospitals in CON states than in states with out CON.”