A key House leader is joining her Senate colleagues in raising concerns about an end-run move to let a politically connected private cancer hospital treat more Georgia patients.
House Health and Human Services Chairwoman Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, said her committee is keeping a close eye on an upcoming vote by the Department of Community Health board on Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s plans to expand its patient base.
“I and the rest of my committee members will closely monitor the board’s action and we reserve the right to intervene or take corrective action, if necessary,” Cooper said.
The national cancer treatment company tried and failed earlier this year to get the General Assembly to approve the expansion, so it is seeking the change from the DCH board instead. That move has angered some legislative leaders, who say the company is trying to make an end run around the General Assembly.
Cooper’s counterpart, Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, has already blasted the company’s attempt to get around the legislature.
DCH is holding a public hearing on the issue Tuesday and the board is supposed to take final action at its November meeting.
The board in September tentatively approved the rule change to allow the company to shed its in-state patient cap.
The company says the cap unfairly prevents Georgia patients from getting help at its facility. Other hospitals counter that the company cherry-picks patients with the highest-paying insurance coverage while leaving other hospitals to shoulder the burden of care of Medicaid and other indigent cancer patients.
Georgia typically requires hospitals to go through a stringent “Certificate of Need” process that is intended to control costs and prevent an oversupply of health care facilities. But in 2008, the General Assembly allowed Cancer Treatment Centers of America to open the Newnan facility as a so-called “destination hospital” that would draw patients to Georgia. As such, lawmakers limited it to 50 beds and required that at least 65 percent of its patients come from out of state.
The new rule would give the hospital a pathway to become a general hospital that isn’t required to have an emergency room. With the new designation, it would no longer have to get most of its patients from out of state. It would also be able to apply, like other hospitals, to expand beyond 50 beds.
“The rule change being considered by the board of Community Health addresses an admittedly difficult topic that speaks to the heart of ensuring adequate and accessible healthcare in Georgia,” Cooper said. “This is an issue that has been, and will continue to be, the topic of much debate in the General Assembly.”
Cancer Treatment Centers’ move reignited a decade-long battle between the company and other Georgia hospitals that claim the company has gotten special treatment.
The company’s executives helped organize a fundraiser for Gov. Nathan Deal in Newnan last fall during his re-election campaign. Deal collected $12,500 from Cancer Treatment executives in September 2014 after attending a ribbon-cutting at their Southeastern Regional Medical Center. Since its push to enter Georgia began, Cancer Treatment Centers and its employees have contributed almost $400,000 to state party political action committees and the campaigns of lawmakers and other state leaders.
But the company is up against some political heavyweights as well. The Georgia Hospital Association and Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals have contributed about $2 million to state lawmakers, candidates, state leaders and party political action committees over the past decade, according to disclosure reports reviewed by the AJC. Deal and his political action committee have collected more than $50,000 from the two groups. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s campaigns have gotten almost $87,000.
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