Several years in a row, the big hospitals got together and pushed legislation at the state level to require “certificates of need” for any surgery center or hospital that applied for a license. The idea was that a “need in the community” for the new facility had to be shown in order for the health department to issue a license.
If you are thinking that this was simply their way of limiting their competition go to the head of the class. Most recently at the national level, the national hospital association greased enough palms in Washington to place a moratorium on specialty hospitals and even on plans for expansion in existing hospitals. If you think that the hospital association simply purchased protection from their competitors….well…come on this is so obvious I’m not giving out any more credit for this conclusion! I’ve always wondered why “certificates of need” weren’t used more commonly. Take grocery stores, for instance. Whole foods is coming to Oklahoma City. This is great news for grocery shoppers. This is terrible news for the other grocery stores. The current stores are going to have to sharpen their game and maintain competitive pricing and quality or…well..they go out of business. Shouldn’t Whole Foods be required to show that the community needs another grocery store? What if they are so good that some of the current stores go out of business? Couldn’t that jeopardize the food supply?
This is the type of logic employed by the arrogant fools trying to manage our lives for us. Apparently enough money is passed out to the Washington thugs to make this a reality for specialty hospitals.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.
