Limiting options is not a way to reduce costs or improve care.
Certificate of Need (CON) laws are a state regulatory tool that seeks to limit the number of health care resources in a specific area under the theory that excess facilities will lead to excess costs. In fact, the opposite is true.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that CON laws can restrict investments that would benefit consumers and are likely to increase, rather than constrain, healthcare costs.
Idaho and Wyoming do not have a CON law. Montana’s CON requirement is limited to nursing homes. Washington state’s CON requirement, which has been in place since 1971, is much more restrictive.
As of January 2020, health care services in Washington that needed a Certificate of Need included:
Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)
Assisted Living & Residential Care Facilities
Burn Care
Cardiac Catheterization
Home Health
Hospice
Hospital Beds (Acute, General Licensed, Med-Surg, etc.)
Neonatal Intensive Care
New Hospitals or Hospital-Sized Investments
Nursing Home Beds / Long-Term Care Beds
Obstetrics Services
Open-Heart Surgery
Organ Transplants
Psychiatric Services
Rehabilitation
Renal Failure/Dialysis
Substance/Drug Abuse
Swing Beds
Analysts at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University have found that there would be more health care services, as well as savings in the cost of healthcare spending in Washington state, if there were no Certificate of Need requirement.
