ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) has withdrawn a proposal to remove a cap on patients served by Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s (CTCA) hospital in Newnan, Ga.
The agency’s board had been scheduled to vote Thursday on a request for an exemption to Georgia’s Certificate of Need law that would have lifted restrictions that limit the CTCA facility to 50 beds and allow it to serve no more than 35 percent of its patients from inside Georgia.
The state Board of Community Health gave the proposal initial approval in September. But the board was deluged with a storm of opposition during a public hearing last month and in written comments from hospital administrators across Georgia and their lobbyists at the state Capitol.
Hospital officials argued CTCA agreed to the patient caps in 2008 to win General Assembly approval of legislation that allowed the company to set up shop in Georgia and that any proposal to do away with those restrictions should be a matter for the legislature – not the health department.
“The reaction was overwhelmingly negative,” Commissioner of Community Health Clyde Reese said during Thursday’s board meeting, explaining why the proposal was removed from the agenda. “It became clear that at this time, an administrative agency is not the proper venue to vet this proposal.”
CTCA submitted its request to the Board of Community Health earlier this year after legislation providing the relief from the CON law the hospital was seeking fizzled in the General Assembly.
CTCA officials say they need to get rid of the restrictions because the caps are preventing them from serving Georgia cancer patients seeking treatment at the Newnan hospital.
“Obviously on behalf of the patients who could potentially be affected by this, I’m incredibly disappointed — and for our staff, who’ve had to sit back and watch these hospitals take shots at us,” said CTCA COO David Kent.
Kent said CON law imposes rules on the industry that stifle competition and innovation, and other hospitals are quick to oppose any change that could affect their market share.
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