The General Assembly won’t start its 2015 session in earnest for a few days, but very soon, members will get together for a short organizational meeting. It’s just the beginning of what is shaping up as a fascinating session, according to John Locke Foundation Vice President for Outreach, Becki Gray. She discusses the steps lawmakers will take to choose leaders, as well as key issues and decisions. One of those key issues is health care. North Carolina could take a major step toward health care reform by scrapping or scaling back its certificate-of-need restrictions. Dr. Richard Bruch, orthopedic surgeon and past president of the N.C. Medical Society, explains why the CON process gets in the way of health care innovation. Then we look at an often overlooked issue that faces government officials. State government collects a vast amount of data. John Correllus, director of the Government Data Analytics Center, recently explained to state lawmakers how his center is trying to ensure that data is used more efficiently. That’s followed by another view on the issue of health care reform. While free-market advocates tend to support the notion of CON reform, not all conservatives are on board with the idea. Cody Hand, former top aide to Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger, is now vice president and deputy general counsel of the N.C. Hospital Association. Hand defends CON rules as a necessary defense against other government restrictions on health care. And finally, Roy Cordato, vice president for research for the John Locke Foundation, refutes minimum wage myths that continue to proliferate despite economic data that shows mandatory increases in minimum wage without corresponding increases in productivity end up hurting many of the low-skilled workers they are designed to help.
New Legislature Faces Key Issues/Decisions
Related
Justices wrestle with New Bern eye surgeon’s CON challenge
North Carolina’s highest court will decide in the months ahead whether a New Bern eye surgeon can continue to pursue his lawsuit against the state’s certificate-of-need restrictions. Lawyers for the doctor and state regulators spent more than an hour Wednesday morning arguing the case before state Supreme Court justices.
Full state Appeals Court asked to rehear recent CON case
A hospital involved in a certificate-of-need legal dispute is asking the full North Carolina Court of Appeals to rehear a case involving a proposed emergency department in Buncombe County. But a competitor and the state Department of Health and Human Services want the court to publish its original decision.
Mission Health seeks publication of recent CON court ruling
Mission Health is urging North Carolina’s second-highest court to publish a recent decision in a certificate-of-need dispute. Publication would give the decision authority as a legal precedent.
Lack of CON public hearing amounted to ‘agency error,’ Appeals Court concludes
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has determined that state regulators should have held a public hearing before awarding a disputed certificate of need in 2022 for a new hospital emergency department in Buncombe County. Yet Tuesday's unanimous unpublished decision from the state’s second-highest court stopped short of ruling that the lack of a public hearing would force the state to drop the CON.