The Georgia House Study Committee on Certificate of Need Modernization held its first hearing this week in Atlanta. Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, kicked off the bipartisan committee, which also includes healthcare executives from the private sector, by imploring members to approach this topic with an open mind, follow the facts and ultimately propose recommendations that will improve access to quality, affordable healthcare.
While committee members and those who testified expressed differing opinions on the effectiveness of CON laws generally, one recurring question from the committee members centered on how the existing application process is working.
In the CON study published earlier this year by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, we analyzed each CON application the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) received from 2017-2022. During that six-year period, 379 CON applications were filed with the state and cataloged in the department’s online repository. When we published the study in April, 43 of the applications were still waiting for the initial decision on their CON by the state.
What did the report find and what might come from the study committee?
We have details in this week’s commentary.
Upcoming
Join us on September 12 as we kick off the Georgia Freedom Series with Matthew Continetti, author of “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism.” The lunch will be held at Park 82 in Atlanta. Tickets are just $45, but they are limited so get your tickets early and stay tuned for more details about the rest of the speaker series.
Friday’s Freshest
Academic achievement still lags among students in some groups, while colleges’ use of racial preferences as a backdoor solution – for a very select, lucky few students, mind you – has just been declared unconstitutional. There is a dire need for solutions that benefit as many students as possible. Research has already identified one of those solutions.
📺 WATCH: Decades of academic progress lost
Lack of emphasis on civics, government and political history is astonishing
If we have an informed citizenry, a person cannot get away with speaking non-truths. A better understanding of the basics of our country’s founding can and will go a long way toward improving civic knowledge. Unfortunately, a majority of our citizens no longer have this understanding.
Some Georgia officials hide documents, steal taxpayer money and can’t do basic math
One DeKalb County Board of Education employee received a $10,000 doctoral degree supplement for an executive position, even though that employee did not hold a doctoral degree. That story, and more, in our monthly compilation of waste, fraud and abuse in Georgia.
“We didn’t go up the mountain”
“But as we drove on, I couldn’t shake the notion that we shouldn’t have even been there. We were supposed to be on Cadillac Mountain. The thing is, we didn’t go up the mountain. ‘Coincidence’ doesn’t cover it. But what meaning could there be?”
States can begin verifying Medicaid eligibility for first time in three years
Millions of people have been receiving a taxpayer-funded benefit for which they no longer qualify.
📺 WATCH: The pandemic, Medicaid funding and governing by crisis
The Latest
Economy
Inflation rose just 3% in June as price pressures continue to cool
Inflation showed welcome signs of cooling in June, but core prices pointed to strong underlying pressures that still bubble beneath the surface – and continue to burden millions of Americans. The consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods, including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.2% in June.
Freeze damage to Georgia peaches prompts disaster declaration
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared 18 Georgia counties natural disaster areas due to damage to the state’s peach crop and other commodities caused by March freezes. The declaration will allow the USDA’s Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to Georgia farmers.
The decline of the nice-to-have economy
Consumers are reining in their spending on these luxuries and conveniences, just as investors are doing the same.
Education
Audit: Georgia’s education tax credit could save the state millions
Georgia’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit could save the state and local school districts millions of dollars in expenses, according to a state audit. If 67% of the students with a scholarship switched from a public school to a private one, the state would save roughly $81 million in public education costs.
Forsyth County school board approves rollback to property tax rate
As homeowners continue to be shocked by new home valuations and related tax bills, the Forsyth County Board of Education approved a drop in its millage rate to help alleviate rising property taxes.
Confidence in higher education reaches new low
According to a new survey, only 36% of Americans reported had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education—a drop of 21 points since 2015 and 12 points since 2018.
Government accountability
State lawmaker calls for South Fulton mayor to resign
State Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, said it’s in the best interest of South Fulton if Mayor Khalid Kamau resigns from office. Kamau faces felony charges of burglary and trespassing after he was arrested over the weekend on private property in Fairburn.
Georgia Composite Medical Board has ‘foot back on the gas,’ head says
The head of the Georgia Composite Medical Board says the agency has its “foot back on the gas” and is progressing on a series of recommendations in a follow-up state audit. The audit found the agency has addressed only some of the previously noted shortcomings, but not others.
Transportation
Georgia transportation officials award more than $83.4M in May
The Georgia Department of Transportation awarded 20 projects totaling more than $83.4 million in May. For fiscal year 2023, GDOT officials said they awarded $1.8 billion in construction contracts.
Atlanta to spend an additional $12M on roads across the city
The Atlanta City Council approved legislation to spend an additional $12 million on roads across the city. The city will pull $3 million from the non-departmental unrestricted reserves and $9 million in interest proceeds from the Series 2015 General Obligation Public Improvement Infrastructure bonds.
Quotes of the Week
“Death of a thousand capable people does not cause as much harm as it does if one fool becomes the master.” – Rumi
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“If you are willing to abandon your principles for convenience or social acceptability, they are not your principles, they are your costume.”- Nitya Prakash