Georgia's lieutenant governor is pressuring the state's House to pass a measure allowing hospitals to be built in smaller counties without applying for a certificate of need, which would greenlight a new hospital in his home county, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported March 20.
While Georgia's Senate has passed measures to make it easier to build new hospitals and health facilities in counties of fewer than 50,000 residents without the state's approval, the House is yet to follow suit, and now Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is urging them to pass the measure so a 100-bed hospital in his home county can move forward, the report said.
Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health, which has come under fire over the closure of two Atlanta-area hospitals, operates an existing 25-bed facility at Sylvan Grove Hospital and opposes the move. Officials in Butts County, where Sylvan Grove is located and where the new hospital would be built, say the hospital is aging and doesn't fit the community's needs.
Mr. Jones' father, millionaire businessman Bill Jones, is also pushing for the new facility, which would be part of a lucrative real estate development in the area, the report said.
Certificate of need legislation, passed in Georgia in 1979, requires applicants wishing to build a new hospital or offer a new medical service to demonstrate a need for it in the community.
Conservatives and legislative Republicans have long advocated for a complete repeal of the law, while hospitals and health systems maintain that removing it would allow physician owners to set up surgery centers close to hospitals and siphon off patients as a result.