This week the Virginia Health Care Association (VHCA) has provided input to the Certificate of Public Need (COPN) Work Group on potential reforms supported by the association.

VHCA leadership discussed various system reforms that would streamline COPN while protecting the excellent care received by the patients and residents in Virginia’s nursing facilities. Doug Suddreth of Autumn Corporation, who represents VHCA on the work group, submitted VHCA’s written comments to work group chair Eva Teig Hardy.

VHCA expressed support for retaining COPN for nursing facilities noting that with Medicaid as the primary payer, a free market environment does not exist for nursing facilities, as they do not have the ability to establish a market rate for the majority of residents.

Potential reforms supported by VHCA include:

• Eliminating the requirement to obtain a COPN for relocation or replacement of medical care facilities within the same primary service area.
• Revising COPN application forms to reflect the current statutory requirements.
• Eliminating extended, time-consuming completeness reviews in the COPN process.
• Eliminating the public hearing requirement if the review is not competitive or if no request for a public hearing is received by the Department from an affected party within 30 days of the application being accepted for review.
• Under certain circumstances, expediting the COPN decision timeline to 120 days.
• Ensuring that the Department of Health tracks compliance with all conditions placed on COPNs by the Commissioner.
• Revising the fee schedule required for COPN applications to reflect the complexity of the reviewable project.