Mississippi's Certificate-of-Need Law

Chairman Mims, Vice Chairman Johnson, and distinguished members of the Public Health and Human Services Committee: 

My name is Matthew Mitchell. I am an economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University where I am an adjunct professor of economics. In recent years, my colleagues and I have been studying certificate-of-need laws in healthcare. I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss our findings with you today.

More than four decades ago, Congress passed and President Ford signed the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974. The statute enabled the federal government to withhold federal funds from states that failed to adopt certificate-of-need (CON) regulations in healthcare. CON laws require healthcare providers wishing to open or expand a healthcare facility to first prove to a regulatory body that the community needs the planned services. New York enacted the first CON program in 1964; a decade later the federal government began encouraging other states to follow suit, and by the early 1980s every state except Louisiana had implemented some version of a CON program. Policymakers hoped these programs would restrain healthcare costs, increase healthcare quality, and improve access to care for poor and underserved communities.

In 1986—as evidence mounted that CON laws were failing to achieve their stated goals—Congress repealed the federal act, eliminating federal incentives for states to maintain their CON programs. Since then, 15 states have done away with their CON regulations. A majority of states still maintain CON programs, however, and vestiges of the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act can be seen in the justifications that state legislatures offer in support of these regulations.

Unfortunately, by limiting supply and undermining competition, CON laws may undercut each of the laudable aims that policymakers desire to achieve with CON regulation. Research shows that CON laws fail to achieve the goals most often given when enacting such laws. These goals include

1. ensuring an adequate supply of healthcare resources,
2. ensuring access to healthcare for rural communities,
3. promoting high-quality healthcare,
4. ensuring charity care for those unable to pay or for otherwise underserved communities,
5. encouraging appropriate levels of hospital substitutes and healthcare alternatives, and
6. restraining the cost of healthcare services.

Because 15 states have repealed their certificate-of-need programs, economists have been able to use modern statistical methods to compare outcomes in CON and non-CON states to estimate the effects of the regulation. These methods control for factors such as socioeconomic conditions that might confound the estimates. Table 1 summarizes some of this research. It is organized around the stated goals of CON laws.

I have also attached my recently published working paper, “Do Certificate-of-Need Laws Limit Spending?,” which I plan to discuss in my oral testimony. This research, like all Mercatus Center research, has been through a rigorous double-blind peer review process. The conclusions I reach are based on my own assessment of the academic literature.

Thank you again for the opportunity to share my research with you. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.