Is CON on the Way OUT in Rural States?

The federal Rural Health Transformation Program may sound the death knell for certificate-of-need laws in some states. The rural funding program, created last year as part of H.R. 1, often referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is a five-year, $50 billion program intended to offset some of the damage anticipated as a result of that law’s 10-year reduction in federal health care spending, and especially its Medicaid cuts, on rural health care. While every state that applied for funding through the program was awarded grants, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has indicated that approval of [...]