Russ Toal, commissioner of the Department of Community Health, which oversees the CON process, has said the state will give greater consideration to hospitals that have come up with novel ways to address disease prevention as well. The state also is cracking down on its enforcement of charity-care commitments from hospitals. Other states have done away with CON laws altogether, creating a free market for hospitals. Health-care leaders in Georgia say this state's changes, so far, represent a kind of hybrid switch and that CON laws likely will remain. ADAPs were started in 1987.
States also contribute their own funds and then administer the funds through ADAPs.
A committee has been appointed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor to study patient access to health care in Georgia. Among the chief subjects the committee, made up of five state senators, will look into is exclusive contracting. Committee members will study whether Northside Hospital's practice of garnering exclusive contracts with health insurers prevents patients from gaining adequate access to hospital care. The department is now the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Today a blood count is one of the most requested, and most informative, diagnostic tools for physicians.