Florida House Takes Aims At Hospital Regulations

June 10, 2015

With supporters saying a free-market approach would spur more competition and more choices for patients, a House panel Tuesday approved a proposal that would eliminate key regulations on building hospitals.

The bill (HB 31A), approved in a party-line vote, is part of a series of proposals that House Republican leaders have pushed to make changes in the health-care industry. The measure would eliminate what is known as the hospital “certificate of need” process, which requires state review and approval of building new hospitals, replacing hospitals and offering certain complex, costly medical services such as organ transplants.

House Health & Human Services Chairman Jason Brodeur, a Sanford Republican who is sponsoring the bill, argued that eliminating the regulations would spur more innovation in the hospital industry and competition for patients.

“This bill … removes a regulatory barrier that hinders competition and disincentives the innovation that we see happening in other industries,” Brodeur said. “It creates a free market with more competition and, ultimately, more options for those seeking health care.”

But critics said they are concerned, in part, that the bill would lead to new hospitals that would focus on attracting patients with health insurance, leaving behind uninsured patients at already-existing hospitals. Opponents included the Florida Hospital Association, the state’s largest hospital-industry group.

“No one wants to compete with us for uncompensated patients,” said Bill Bell, the hospital association’s general counsel. “They only want to treat the paying patients, and that’s why they would siphon off those paying patients, increase our costs, and we would have to shift those costs back to our paying patients and businesses.”

With lawmakers in the middle of a special legislative session called to pass a budget, it remains unclear whether the House certificate-of-need proposal has any chance of passing. The Senate has not filed a similar bill for the special session, though the Senate Health Policy Committee is slated to discuss the issue Wednesday during a workshop.

Nevertheless, the debate during the special session could be a step toward House Republican leaders pushing to eliminate hospital certificates of need in the future. The House Health Innovation Subcommittee voted 9-3 to approve Brodeur’s bill, with all of the panel’s Republicans supporting it.

The certificate-of-need process has long been controversial and can lead to legal battles within the industry.

by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida

Comments

One Response to “Florida House Takes Aims At Hospital Regulations”

  1. Kate on June 11th, 2015 5:37 am

    Makes no sense. They should go after the insurance companies that select only one or two hospitals to keep their costs down. Ever look and see what your bills says they are paying for services. Lets have so many more half rate hospitals that we can die anywhere we want and not survive big business.

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