CON Update

As you know from my recent blog posts this spring, Jupiter Medical Center spent significant energy to keep Florida legislators from repealing the Certificate of Need program. Certificate of Need is a regulatory process that requires certain health care providers to obtain state approval before offering new or expanded services here in Florida.

In my opinion, repealing CON was not good news for the consumer because it had the potential to not only increase cost, but could also lead to a decrease in the accessibility and quality of health care in our state. Thankfully, the Florida Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have eliminated CON. This means Jupiter Medical Center will continue to do what we do every day - offer the highest quality and most accessible care at an affordable price.

We were proud to work with others across the region to ensure that the bill did not come up for a vote in the Senate. But this work would not have been possible without the support we received from thousands of our fellow Floridians who sent messages, called their legislators and shared our efforts via social media. I am grateful and I thank them for their support. In addition, I am extremely thankful for the legislators who in return, took the time to listen and recognize the significance of the issue. Without them, we would not have had the success we did.

At the end of the day, the reality is that CON is smart and appropriate regulation that works and we are glad that it remains. Eliminating CON would end up benefitting the entrepreneurs that want to focus only on profitable services, instead of balancing these with vital services the community needs. When it comes to the people in our community, we cannot let profit be the sole driver of their health care.

However, we believe that the debate over CON is not over and will most likely get taken back up when the state legislature convenes in the fall. We will continue to do all we can do to make sure that CON remains in place and that all Floridians have access to the best and most affordable care. Stay tuned for updates here in the next few months on this vitally important topic and as always, thanks for reading.

Access: Denied!

I have spent the last several weeks talking about the negative effects of the potential deregulation of the Certificate of Need (CON) program in Florida. As I have previously mentioned, CON, a regulatory process that requires health care providers to obtain state approval before offering services in Florida, will be decided in the upcoming legislative session. 

This is not good news for our community. CON has the potential to dramatically increase health care costs, as well as lead to a significant decrease in quality of health care across Florida. It also has the potential to dramatically decrease access to quality health care that members of my community currently enjoy.

If CON were to go away, we would be left with a community where boutique health care businesses move in and offer only profitable services, instead of balancing these with vital services the community needs. This shift in health care would leave patients with fewer options because community hospitals would no longer be able to afford to offer many of the services they currently provide.

You see, the repeal of CON would mean that many patients would find themselves with fewer options for certain acute care services as community hospitals would no longer be able to afford to provide them. These hospitals would be forced to spend most their resources to provide services (the ones that are the most unprofitable) to patients without insurance or the inability to pay. At the same time, community hospitals would see a loss in market share (and thus revenue) of profitable medical services to these new specialty-medical practices that will flood the market post CON - leaving little room for necessary (albeit unprofitable) services and procedures. In Pennsylvania, state health analysts observed a serious decline in general acute care hospitals in the 10 years (1996-2005) after the state ended its CON law. At the same time, there was a dramatic increase in ambulatory service centers.

Finally, the deregulation of CON would hamper Jupiter Medical Center’s ability to provide community benefits like the $7 million we invested in Diabetes education, nutrition services, mammography screenings, wellness classes and support groups in 2015. A decrease in revenue that would come with deregulation could prevent us from providing the services our community needs and limited our neighbors’ access to these types of invaluable services.

I strongly believe that everyone in our community deserves access to the best, most affordable health care. So, I continue to advocate for our legislators to put down this legislation, convene a working group of health care leaders, physicians, medical professionals and patient advocates and work toward providing the highest quality and most affordable health care for this State’s most precious resource - Floridians.

If you are concerned about how the deregulation of CON and specifically, Senate Bill (SB 676) or House Bill (CS/HB7) will affect your access to high quality and affordable health care, I encourage to reach out to your legislators and make your voice heard.

Like what you read? Want to keep in touch? Please connect with me on LinkedIn.

Nobody in the middle of a heart attack shouts, “Let's go shopping!”

   

As many of you know, I have been doing a lot of reading and research surrounding this issue of the deregulation of the Certificate of Need (CON) and have been writing extensively about the reasons why the legislature here in Florida should not repeal the program. Recently, the State Senator Rob Bradley introduced legislation (SB 676) to repeal CON in Florida and House members Miller and Renner subsequently offered a companion bill in the House (CS/HB7).

As I argued in a recent post, No Place for Health Care in a Free Market Economy, health care does not operate in a free market space. Therefore, the benefits of deregulation do not apply to health care as they do, say, in the airline industry.

I recently came across this clever 2014 “listicle” by Merrill Goozner from Modern Healthcare which gives a Late Night with David Letterman “Top 10” send up of the reasons why health care is not a free market. I found his list to be fairly spot on and worth sharing. Here is a recap of his list:

10. “Most care is delivered locally and will remain that way.” This is his way of explaining that competition by foreign competitors, which can affect price, does not really exist in health care.

9. “Physician assistants, nurses, lab techs and other specialized personnel labor under overly restrictive licensing laws” and thus, the workforce is not easily replaceable.

8. “Doctors belong to professional guilds” which limit access to the profession and establish licensing protocols regardless of cost.

7.  “Pharmecutical and medical device firms use patent monopolies” which equates to very high prices.

6. “Most non-routine healthcare is delivered by not-for-profit charities.”

5. “Comparison shopping is complex for patients, as well as confusing and nearly impossible, because outcomes are variable, success isn't guaranteed.”

4.  “The law says no one can be denied healthcare when needed.”

3. “Patients, even those in high-deductible insurance plans, pay for only a fraction of the cost of healthcare.”

2. “Insurers can pass along all costs in the form of higher premiums”

1. And the number one (1) reason why health care is not a free market . . . .“nobody in the middle of a heart attack shouts, “Let's go shopping!”

Again, if you are concerned about how the deregulation of CON and specifically, Senate Bill (SB 676) or House Bill (CS/HB7) will affect your access to high quality and affordable health care, I encourage to reach out to your legislators and make your voice heard.

Like what you read? Want to keep in touch? Please connect with me on LinkedIn.