TN Lawmaker Pushing to Discontinue CON

Posted by Mark Todd Engler in Certificates of Need (CON), Illinois, Tennessee on Jan 28th, 2009 | no responses

Once Gov. Blago's ethical misadventures became go-to shtick-fodder for late-night comedians, across the country reporters, editorial writers and bloggers began perusing the lurid tales of CON corruption vividly summarized in FBI court documents.

But Tennessee State Rep. Susan Lynn reminded us yesterday that the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission were blasting the Illinois CON well before the name "Milorad 'Rod' R. Blagojevich" became a recognizable household mouthful in regions far removed from the Land O' Smelly Onions.

Lynn told StateHouseCall.org she plans to again spearhead a certificate-of-need reform-by-repeal effort in the Tennessee Legislature this year. She calls CON laws "protectionism at its worst."

The DOJ and the FTC tend to agree with Lynn's assessment that CONs simply "add politics" to a process better left to the market to decide. "CON laws impede the efficient performance of health care markets by creating barriers to entry and expansion, to the detriment of health care competition and consumers," according to DOJ's press release last September.

The DOJ-FTC joint statement to the Illinois Task Force on Health Planning Reform states: "Our concerns about the harm from CON laws are informed by one fundamental principle: market forces tend to improve the quality and lower the costs of health care goods and services. They drive innovation and ultimately lead to the delivery of better health care. In contrast, over-restrictive government intervention can undermine market forces to the detriment of health care consumers and may facilitate anticompetitive private behavior."

Lynn said it's clear Tennessee's CON system "doesn't encourage more health facilities, it stifles them."