Health-care advocate and providers spar over Certificate of Need reform, thresholds and timelines in House Health Care hearing

Mike Fisher, the Vermont Health Care Advocate, and Sam Poyesh, a health policy analyst with the HCA, presented conceptual recommendations to the House Committee on Health Care on Feb. 12 aimed at reforming the Certificate of Need (CON) process. The presenters said the recommendations are conceptual and would be drafted into legislative language if the committee shows interest.

The HCA outlined several components: raise the CON monetary threshold for full review (discussed at $10 million in construction as a proposed dividing line), create a lower-tier expedited review for projects between the current and new thresholds, and place limits on how many rounds of prehearing written questions the Green Mountain Care Board may issue. The HCA said projects that fall below the expedited threshold should be automatically expedited rather than requiring an applicant to request it. The office also proposed that large new health-care facilities affiliated with hospitals be…