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Show r jr The Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday, November I Ft 13, 1982 Health Panel Wants Certificate of Need Extended 2 Years By JoAnn Jacobsen-Well- s Tribune Medical Editor Utah Health Advisory Council members who oversee the activities of the state Department of Health, Friday voted to recommend to the Legislature that the Utah Certificate There is a strong commitment enforce the states antitrust statute and educate the provider community as to what constitutes a violation of anti-trulaws. to There is a strong commitment on part of the provider community to support proposals that will truly There is a strong commitment to support an independent program of utilization review and deregulate the health care sector of the economy. the state. prior approval for hospital admissions. There is a strong commitment part of the health care provider community to make available more information on the cost and quality of health care services in the state. on the member of the advisory council, disagreed with Dr. Masons prem- According to Dr. Mason, the CON statute may help, but it doesnt completely do tha job of forcing price competition and the Department of Health will be asking for other regulatory methods. Dr. W. James Gardner III, a There is a strong commitment programs designed to insure the quality of health care provided in health care facilities in to support ise. His question: Why do we have to have a law to ake prudent men do prudent things? I have more faith in the public than in a regulatory approach, he said. of Need Act be extended for two with years certain The specific Dr. Mason changes were recommended to the council by Dr. James 0. Mason, executive director of the health department. The committees action came after several months of discussion of the controversial, cumbersome CON', which was enacted by the Legislature in 1979 to restrain unneeded capital investment and expansion of health services, principally by nursing homes and hospitals. Many health care providers insist that CON' has never achieved what it was designed to do create effective price competition in the marketplace. But few groups, while advocating its demist, have come up with alternative plans to replace :V. , ir--'.- ' . . t ., it t best place its beautiful - vrr ' 'i.'sy if .'V . ( .y J kJ f T V v a VWVVy? - - s sre.r..vVi - V,...- ,. 'lr ASfJji ; :V ::K, i r . i And Utah Health Advisory Council members Friday agreed that time is running out. Federal Health Planning funding for the state statute has been awarded through June of 1983. Therefore unless the Legislature takes specific action to extend CON in the next general session in January, the law will expire in June. If the CON statute is extended, council members agreed the following criteria should be used to structure the bill. First, the bill should state that CON authority not be extended beyond June of 1985. Health care payors and providers, third-part- y purchasers of health care should be put on notice that reimbursement systems must be prepared to cope with a deregulated environment by ,fj J , ; - , i,y w ' t... it. - iT- f , J ... ..i- ,w. Jfe , s 1 t. .. m s. I 1985. The committee, upon Dr. Masons advice, also voted to recommend to the governor and legislators that the statute should be greatly simplified in the following ways: There should be a single committee within the Department of Health which is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. (The statute now requires that the CON application be reviewed by two governmental agencies before a final decision is reached by Dr. Mason. Hospitals have complained that this process is both time consuming and expensive). The committee should be chaired by an administrative nonvoting law judge who would be responsible for insuring the legal integrity of the process. The committee should be advisory to Dr. Mason, who will still make the final decision on the CON application. Any appeal of a decision by him on a specific CON proposal should be in the District Court. CON reviews should be limited to a maximum of 90 days from the receipt of a completed application, and provisions for batching similar applications should be continued. The aspects of the statute should be strengthened and the health department staff, who have been limited to reviewing what proposals come to them, would be encouraged to stimulate innovative applications. Staff should be required to present arguments in favor and opposed to a proposed project, but not make a specific recommendation to the committee. The health advisory committee voted to further recommend to the Legislature that the statue continue to cover the same things that are included in the existing statute. (Health facility beds and new institutional health services). They will also recommend that the health department be granted broad authority to exempt specific projects, geographic areas and categories of coverage from review. This exclusion should be based on market conditions and the of the review. potential The council members Friday specified that the CON legislation should only be passed if the following also occurs: Legislation is passed which in modifies the Insurance Section of the Insurance Code to establish a specific legal basis for preferred provider plans. Legislation is passed which provides for the regulation of single service health maintainence :&Tr;C: i rn ; $358 Hand knotted fringes win a beautiful selection of patterns and colors for j. any decor. 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