New Hampshire hospitals are opposing a bill that would exclude Cancer Treatment Centers of America from review by the certificate-of-need board and exempt it from the Medicaid enhancement tax — requirements of other healthcare facilities in the state — according to an Eagle Tribune report.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America is planning to build a new oncology center in New Hampshire, a project that it said could create 500 jobs and have an economic impact of $500 million over five years, according to the report. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marilinda Garcia (R-Salem), was created at the request of the company, which said review by the CON board in Georgia, where it is opening a center later this year, was "an unnecessary bureaucratic obstacle," Ms. Garcia said in the report. The bill would define Cancer Treatment Centers as a "destination cancer hospital," anticipate about 50 beds and require a minimum of 65 percent of the patients to come from out of state.
Hospitals such as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. — the state's largest employer — and Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H., as well as the New Hampshire Hospital Association oppose the bill and Cancer Treatment Centers' plans to build a new facility. They say the company should go through the CON process and pay the Medicaid enhancement tax. They also claim a new center is not needed and that if the company does not accept Medicaid patients, it could siphon more profitable patients away, which could force some hospitals to cut jobs or eventually close.
Proponents of the bill said competition will force cancer services in the state to improve and that the company should not have to pay the Medicaid tax because it doesn't take Medicaid. In addition, the company would pay business profits and enterprise taxes that hospitals do not pay. Supporters of the bill also said job cuts and hospital closures have not occurred in other states where Cancer Treatment Centers has built facilities.
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Cancer Treatment Centers of America is planning to build a new oncology center in New Hampshire, a project that it said could create 500 jobs and have an economic impact of $500 million over five years, according to the report. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marilinda Garcia (R-Salem), was created at the request of the company, which said review by the CON board in Georgia, where it is opening a center later this year, was "an unnecessary bureaucratic obstacle," Ms. Garcia said in the report. The bill would define Cancer Treatment Centers as a "destination cancer hospital," anticipate about 50 beds and require a minimum of 65 percent of the patients to come from out of state.
Hospitals such as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. — the state's largest employer — and Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H., as well as the New Hampshire Hospital Association oppose the bill and Cancer Treatment Centers' plans to build a new facility. They say the company should go through the CON process and pay the Medicaid enhancement tax. They also claim a new center is not needed and that if the company does not accept Medicaid patients, it could siphon more profitable patients away, which could force some hospitals to cut jobs or eventually close.
Proponents of the bill said competition will force cancer services in the state to improve and that the company should not have to pay the Medicaid tax because it doesn't take Medicaid. In addition, the company would pay business profits and enterprise taxes that hospitals do not pay. Supporters of the bill also said job cuts and hospital closures have not occurred in other states where Cancer Treatment Centers has built facilities.
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