The state’s certificate of need law, passed in 1979, was enacted to comply with a federal mandate aiming to avoid duplication and reduce healthcare costs. It was adjusted in 2008 to exempt physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers with a single specialty.
The CON law has been revised twice more since, with the state Legislature in 2013 limiting the filing of objections to new facilities seeking a certificate of need to existing hospitals within 35 miles of a proposed facility, the report said.
In 2019, the application thresholds were raised, which were fully adopted in March due to the pandemic, according to the report. The thresholds require a certificate of need application from $1.3 million to $3 million for planned equipment purchases and $3 million to $10 million for capital expenditures, according to the report.
