Health Care

Push grows to loosen certificate of need laws amid rural health care crisis

‘It’s economics 101.’
Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert, Ga., shown here on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, closed in 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)

States across the country are planning to scale back regulators’ control over where health care providers open or expand hospital facilities in an effort to spur hospital construction, particularly in rural areas.

More than a dozen states have committed to or are considering legislation to overhaul so-called certificate of need laws during the 2026 legislative session, a move that could accelerate a nationwide retreat from a once-ubiquitous cost-control strategy. 

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