Certificate Of Need Regulation Research Paper

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Certificate of Need Laws Christopher Rice Econ 309 Economic Problems and Public Policy George Mason University Introduction: A certificate of need, in the United States healthcare industry, is a legal document that is required before any acquisition, expansions, or creations of facilities. These regulations exist in many States and even in some Federal jurisdictions. All new hospitals, psychiatric facilities, rehabilitation facilities, nursing home facilities, adult care homes, kidney disease treatment centers, intermediate care facilities for mentally retarded, rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies, hospices, diagnostic centers, oncology treatment centers, and ambulatory surgical facilities must first obtain …show more content…

The intent of certificate of need regulation is to control healthcare costs by limiting the building of unnecessary health services and facilities based on geographic, demographic, and economic considerations. Proponents of these laws believe that unregulated market competition creates incentives for producers to overinvest in equipment and facilities leading overutilization of equipment and over hospitalization of patients in order to cover the increased capital input costs. Medicare and Medicaid make such a large portion in the healthcare marketplace and the pricing of both of these healthcare programs rely on the costs of production in order to compensate physicians and healthcare organizations. Because of how these programs pay for services, regulators believe there is an incentive for providers too build or expand facilities, or acquire more healthcare …show more content…

For their data, they looked at just hospitals in Pennsylvania, three years prior to and three years after 1996, the year the state terminated it certificate of need requirements. They observed that there was a 25% increase in the expansion of cardiac programs in the state but no commensurate increase in the number of coronary bypass graft surgeries performed. Quality, as measured by mortality rate had no significant change. This study from the American Journal on Medical Quality is more focused on the effects of certificated of need laws on the quality of medical care being consumed compared to the previous two studies from the Journal of Applied Econometrics and The Southern Economic Journal. These studies tended to focus on supply aspect of the market and whether or not certificate of need laws had any effect on entry into the market, or the speed at which technology diffuses into a

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