State Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Tuscambia) says he is planning to file a bill next session that will reform the Certificate of Needs Laws in the Yellowhammer State.
Alabama Certificate of Need (CON) Review Board exercises the authority to accept or deny certain health care providers’ applications to offer or expand various services.
Stutts filed a bill last session that would not have abolished the board completely, but was aimed to limit its dominance over the healthcare industry in Alabama.
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“There have been bills introduced by me and by other people to totally repeal it, and in the then in the last two legislative sessions I’ve introduced a scaled down version of just modifying it,” Stutts explained Tuesday on WVNN. “Initially, the bill that I introduced was to repeal the CON requirements in rural counties… And then this past session, I introduced a bill…to repeal the Certificate of Need law for psychiatric and obstetric services.”
Alabama’s CON approval process is overseen by a nine-member review board housed under the State Health Planning & Development Agency. The state legislature in 1975 established Alabama’s CON Review Board, requiring the board to consist of three consumers, three providers and three representatives of the governor.
Stutts believes this process is too expensive and too burdensome for healthcare providers.
“When you look at what comes out of that system, it’s facility cost, it’s salaries for employees, it’s supplies,” Stutts said, “And then you can add on to that CON costs, I mean, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year get spent in Alabama on nothing but the CON process. You know when one is going to apply for certificate of need, it’s a very detailed, lengthy process that takes months or years to accomplish, and thousands and thousands of dollars in application fees and attorneys fees and all of those things are things that take money out of the healthcare system that could be spent on innovation, could be spent on raises for hospital employees, for physician recruitment, you name it.”
The state lawmaker said he’s been talking with different healthcare groups recently about the issue and trying to determine what the legislation should look like for next session.
“I am, and I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to look like, but we’re going to look at some of these areas,” he said.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
