I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but I just never could seem to find the time. Both Carolinas Healthcare and Presbyterian Healthcare have applied to the state of North Carolina for a Certificate of Need. What is that, you ask? I’m glad you did. The Certificate of Need – or CON for short (how’s that for an appropriate acronym?) – comes from a state law that prohibits health-care providers from acquiring, replacing or adding to facilities and equipment without state approval.
At least, that’s what I hear. Put in other terms, it means that hospitals can’t be built unless the state says it’s okay. It’s like a giant game of Simon Says. Now I’m all for the protection of the innocent and everything, but come on now. According to that article I just referenced, it’s going to take three years just to build a hospital. It’s no small undertaking. Surely they aren’t going to slap one up on every corner just because they can. Are they?
Okay, maybe they will. But is that really a bad thing? Do we need to be protected from anything and everything? Where was the state when all the drug stores were going up all over town? Heck, they still are. I can get my prescription filled at dozens of places, and the prices have fallen. Well, my insurance rates are higher than ever, but the drug stores compete like crazy, I just need to transfer it all the time.
Maybe the answer isn’t to go through the approval process and say who can and cannot build their little hospital. That sounds like state-sponsored monopolies to me. Maybe the answer is to agree that a certain area of town needs hospitals and see who can build theirs the fastest. That would be fun.
I can just imagine it now, seeing the legislature say that since there is room for three 50-bed hospitals (or whatever) on the East Side of Charlotte, we get to watch to see who has the resources to put up theirs the fastest. It would be like watching hotels go up in Las Vegas. Don’t get yours done in time to get the doors open? Better luck next time. Of course, then health care would really get expensive. But at least we’d have something entertaining to watch…