Regulators approved a $567 million plan Friday to upgrade the Washington, D.C.-based MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and add a six-story pavilion, but also recommended the hospital acquire a certificate of need for the project, according to a Washington Business Journal report.
The recommendation for a certificate of need from the State Health Planning and Development Agency is in line with one given earlier this month from another regulatory panel, according to the report.
The hospital's proposed plan for the pavilion involves adding an expanded emergency department, private inpatient rooms, operating rooms and a helipad, according to the report. As part of the plan, the health system agreed to include a program that provides cancer screenings and treatment free of charge to at least 500 uninsured or underinsured patients. Regulators also reduced the hospital's licensed bed capacity to 538 beds because it has been operating at about 68 percent of its current licensed capacity of 609 beds for the last several years, according to the report.
If MedStar Georgetown secures the certificate of need, it says it would break ground as soon as December and aims to complete construction by 2020, according to the report.
More articles on finance:
New Mexico officials ask health system for $50M to cover Medicaid shortfall
Majority of Americans support increased federal spending to support cancer 'moonshot'
CBO: Subsidies, taxes and penalties to cost government $660B in 2016