Legislation easing restrictions on a for-profit cancer hospital in Newnan was filed in the state House on Tuesday.
House Bill 482, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, would eliminate the 50-bed cap on the Cancer Treatment Centers of America campus in Coweta County. It would also eliminate the requirement that 65 percent of the hospital's patients come from out of state.
The Legislature in 2008 agreed to allow CTCA to build its “destination cancer hospital” as long as the company agreed to provide charity care, serve patients covered by Medicaid and attract most of its patients from other states. Critics have argued that the hospital’s charity and Medicaid work has failed to meet standards, something CTCA denies.
The 2008 legislation allowed CTCA to bypass the state’s typical “Certificate of Need” process that hospitals and other health care organizations must follow to prove the new facility is needed. Instead lawmakers approved a separate approval process for a “destination” hospital serving a national patient base, not just filling a need for Georgia patients.
The bill is sure to generate debate at the Capitol with nonprofit hospitals coalescing against it. In fact, the Georgia Hospital Association on Tuesday said its “entire hospital membership is passionately opposed to the CTCA legislation.”
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