With the ever-increasing costs of healthcare, Tennesseans are seeking innovative solutions to expand access, improve outcomes, and lower costs. While much of the focus on healthcare is at the federal level, many things can be done right here in our home state. Beacon continues to work with state lawmakers to incubate free-market healthcare options for Tennesseans that expand quality and access for patients across the socio-economic spectrum. For example, we will continue our call for the full repeal of certificate-of-need laws. These laws restrict providers from offering new services and have denied a total of $733 million in healthcare-related economic investments in our communities since 2000.
While Tennessee policymakers have recently advanced reforms that are already expanding access to care, such as Right to Try for Individualized Treatment, more needs to be done. To build on this progress to improve healthcare access, Beacon proposes:
- Full repeal of the remaining certificate-of-need laws.
- Increasing patients’ access to healthcare by allowing non-physician providers to serve patients within their scope of education.
