“certificate of need” law prevents surgeon from offering cheap MRI's in NC

[F.X Clampazzo]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/31/17629526/mri-cost-certificate-of-need-north-carolina-lawsuit

Under North Carolina’s law, a medical provider must
obtain a government permit (a “certificate of need”) if they want to
offer certain new services or buy new equipment. But first, every year,
state officials will make a determination about whether certain services
are needed in different places.

If the state has decided an area doesn’t need a service,
then other providers are barred from even applying for a permit. That is
what Singh ran into: He wasn’t allowed to apply to purchase a permanent
MRI for his Winston-Salem center. State officials had already decided
it wasn’t needed there.

Even if he could apply, other providers in the area could
contest his application. Singh’s attorneys estimate the entire process
of applying for and defending a certificate of need can cost up to
$400,000 and last as long as three years. A permanent MRI machine would
cost Singh less than $750,000.

Under his current, sub-optimal, configuration of renting mobile MRI a few days a week, he's charging $500-700 for an MRI, the state average for NC is $1200 for just the MRI.

[Mr. Someguy]

Wowbits like a race to the bottom.

[StrawberryClock]

Wow, how can you have private healthcare and yet somehow have the government interfering to make it worse?

Why can't a doctor just buy an MRI if they have the money to do so?

CON laws started popping up in the 1960s, and in 1974, Congress made them or less standard by linking federal funding to states adopting such a law. Louisiana was the only state that didn’t. They were well-intentioned, with the goal of exercising strong oversight of new health care providers.

But lawmakers and policy experts found that, as much as anything, they stopped new competition from challenging existing monopolies hospitals have on certain health care services.

Of course. OF COURSE.

[Download]

Cronyism at its finest.

[zakededodead]

command economy at its finest

[Demache]

This is the worst aspects of private and public healthcare combined, no wonder our healthcare costs are in the toilet.