RICHMOND, VA-The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit fell short of calling Virginia's Certificate of Public Need Law unconstitutional, but did question whether the law inhibits interstate commerce.
In a 26-page opinion, the three-judge panel partially reversed a lower court's decision in a case that challenges the certificate of need law and provisions dealing with medical equipment. The state's certificate of need law requires medical companies seeking to build new facilities or install new medical equipment go through a lengthy and expensive process to prove the necessity of the new buildings or devices, according to the Washington Post.
“The bureaucratic red tape foisted upon businesses by the program may well be so cumbersome that, as a functional matter, it imposes a major burden on interstate commerce and discourages out-of-state firms from offering important medical services in Virginia,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in the opinion. See story in the Washington Post.
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