Folwell goes on offensive against CONs
One of the biggest reasons Medicaid expansion went nowhere is because of ol’ Roy and his team standing with big hospitals instead of “the little folks” struggling to pay big bills sent out by BIG hospitals. A provision to weaken existing certificate of need laws was included in the medicaid expansion deal.
Certificates of Need pick and choose who gets to control a certain medical “market” in various regions of North Carolina. Think you can perform a procedure cheaper and safer than the local big hospital? Sorry. The big guys already have a Certificate of Need, and the state won’t allow two people in the same area doing the same thing. CONs are competition-killers that mostly benefit large hospital groups.
Treasurer Dale Folwell has already taken on the hospital lobby and their non-transparent billing practices. Now, he’s going to court to lend his support to the effort to kill off CONs:
[…] State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, sought to become a party to a lawsuit filed in 2020 challenging the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) laws. The lawsuit was filed Dr. Jay Singleton, a New Bern eye surgeon who challenged the state’s CON law that requires him to secure a government issued certificate of need before he can perform most eye surgeries at his vision center. The CON law forces Dr. Singleton to perform most surgeries at New Bern’s Carolina East Medical Center at significantly higher costs to the patient. His lawsuit contends that the CON law violates three sections of the North Carolina Constitution.
North Carolina’s CON law requires that health care providers that want to expand or open facilities in a particular area must first prove to the satisfaction of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that the new or expanded service is needed by the community. Ostensibly, the purpose of CON regulation is to limit spending and cost by discouraging providers from acquiring unnecessary medical equipment. However, studies show CON laws protect incumbent providers from competition rather than protecting patients and payers from unnecessary costs.
Dr. Singleton’s lawsuit was recently dismissed by a unanimous decision of a N.C. Court of Appeals three-judge panel largely on technical grounds. Dr. Singleton then petitioned the court to rehear the case to address the actual issues, but that was denied. Now, Dr. Singleton has filed with the Supreme Court of North Carolina to review his case. On Monday, August 15, 2022, Treasurer Folwell filed an amicus curiae, or “Friend of the Court,” brief in support of Dr. Singleton’s request.
“As ‘keeper of the public purse’ and having responsibility for 750,000 members of the State Health Plan, I felt it was my duty to become part of Dr. Singleton’s lawsuit,” Treasurer Folwell said. “We spend $4 billion a year of taxpayer’s money providing medical and pharmaceutical coverage for those that teach, protect and otherwise serve the people of this state. CON laws are exactly what they sound like – a CON. Every year the hospital cartel, through the North Carolina Healthcare Association, prevents any meaningful change to CON laws. Now, we must go through the courts to achieve that change.”
In the filing, Treasurer Folwell holds the position that CON law violates Article I, Sections 19, 32, and 34 of the North Carolina Constitution. He also notes CON laws create an uneven playing field that protects existing large health care providers. This decreases the accessibility, quality, and affordability of health care while these large hospitals’ profits dramatically increase to the detriment of North Carolinians.” […]
CON must go, but so must the medical monopolies like Atrium which are ruining healthcare in North Carolina. I have told Speaker Moore this, but he didn’t even answer me. Makes me wonder how much campaign funding he gets from them. Monopolies violate our State Constitution, in the first place, and should never have been allowed to exist here. It infuriates me that, whereas I used to be able to call my doctor’s office directly and get a pretty quick answer, now I call the same number and Atrium answers and takes a message for the doctor’s office or maybe connects me with the doctor’s office so I have to tell them all over again what I already told the Atrium person. I may call by 8:00 in the morning, but not hear back from the doctor’s office until too late in the evening to get any help or an appointment before the next day. This is ludicrous, especially since it is unconstitutional. The two times my wife and I have had the Fauci flu, Atrium policies would not allow our doctors to give us the help we needed. We have had to contact a doctor in another part of the State to call in ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for us. This is un-American and has to be stopped. Dale Folwell is a real champion of the people, and I stand by him in his efforts. We could not have a better Treasurer. As for the effort for Medicaid Expansion, that has been delayed because most of us in the House have refused to support it. Even though we want to get rid of CON and pass the SAVE ACT, we refused to go along with a deal tying those to Medicaid Expansion. When the House offered a compromise that turned the idea into a study bill, the Senate wouldn’t consider it by the end of June. The study bill itself is too eager to work out a deal on this. It may come up in December when we convene for the last time this year. If it does, I intend to be there to fight it tooth and nail.