North Carolina patients have already experienced the benefits of less health care regulation (which means better access and lower health care costs):
- Deregulation: In 2005, the Tar Heel State amended its Certificate of Need (CON) law so that Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) no longer needed to weave through red tape to add gastrointestinal (GI) rooms. Physician offices were also allowed to build GI procedure rooms without prior state authorization.
- Access: Since this regulatory relaxation, 56 new facilities have opened for patients to undergo colonoscopies. Utilization also increased by 28 percent. According to Peter Donaldson, CEO of Digestive Health Specialists, the moral hazard associated with lower cost services reduced the death rate for colorectal cancer by 53 percent. This success story partially contributes to the growing trend of alternative care and the fact that 50 percent of colonoscopy services in the United States are completed in ambulatory settings.
- Cost Savings: Medicare also saved over $225 million within six years as the cost per procedure in a free standing facility is only 56 percent of what Medicare would pay a full-service hospital:
