Editorial Roundup: Georgia

Brunswick News. June 6, 2023.

Editorial: General Assembly must carefully weigh CON repeal

Is there a problem with admitting sick people to hospitals in this state? One might be inclined to think so with all the chatter about reshaping or eliminating the Certificate of Need requirement in Georgia.

The Certificate of Need law has been a part of the Peach State landscape since 1979 following a mandate passed by the U.S. Congress. The law requires hospitals and other health care providers to apply to the Georgia Department of Community Health for permission to add new facilities or services. Applicants must prove a need for what they are requesting.

Its purpose, of course, was to hold down health care costs, an objective Congress jettisoned in 1986 when it removed the mandate. The majority of the 50 states, far better managers of their budgets and expenditures, have kept the CON requirement.

Eleven states have ditched the law since 1990, most recently South Carolina. Its legislature voted this year to scrap the measure with the exception of how it applies to long-term health care.