According to a report in the Triangle Business Journal,
“The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission will
tell a task force in Illinois this week that certificate of need laws
undercut consumer choice, stifle innovation and weaken markets? ability
to contain health care costs.”
The Locke Foundation published an extensive report on Certificates of Need here, reported on a 2006 Court of Appeals decision here a CJ column here and Hood has written about them here and here.
What’s a certificate of need? Permission from the state to add a new wing or extra beds to a hosptial or to open a new office offering mammograms or other medical services. If a health care entrepreneur like a group of doctors or medical professionals wishes to offer services and start a business that a community wants or needs, they have to get approval from an agency within the North Carolina
Department of Health and Human Services. Certificates of need circumvent the most basic
function of private decision-making in a free enterprise system.
Many North Carolina communities are questioning if certificates of need are stifling the growth of needed health care facilites and driving up costs. Hopefully certificates of need will be re-visited when the General Assembly re-convenes in Jan. 2009 and under the new governor’s administration.
