Certificate of need reform bill gets committee approval March 5, 2026 Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, (right) presents House Bill 407 to the House Health Services Committee on Thursday next to Kileen Lindgren with the Pacific Legal Foundation. The bill would reform Kentucky’s certificate of need law. A high-res version is available here. FRANKFORT — – A bill advocates say would bring needed changes to Kentucky’s certificate of need law advanced from the House Health Services Committee on Thursday. Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, is the primary sponsor of House Bill 407, which would reform the certificate of need process in Kentucky. Proctor told the committee the original intention of certificate of need, or CON, at the state and federal level in the 1970s was to reduce health care costs and improve quality of care. “However, the federal government realized this was not accomplishing the purpose, which was to contain costs, to make (health care) more accessible and to improve quality. And in 1986, CON was repealed,” she said. While many other states have repealed or passed CON reforms, Kentucky has not, Proctor added. “Kentucky has fundamentally not changed any of the processes of CONs since 1972,” Proctor said. “… What this bill seeks to do is streamline the process of CON. That’s all it does. It does not repeal certificate of need.” Mark Guilfoyle, an attorney representing St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky, spoke in opposition to the legislation. He said the bill would end the ability for any parties other than the applicant to have a role in the CON process or to file an appeal. “We think that this bill will do damage to the certificate of need process, and what that will do, in particular to St. Elizabeth, is it will harm safety net hospitals,” Guilfoyle said. Kileen Lindgren, senior state policy manager at the Pacific Legal Foundation, testified alongside Proctor in favor of HB 407. She told the committee an updated version of the bill does confer a right to non-applicants, or the affected parties. Lindgren said the legislation seeks to ensure the CON process through the state Cabinet for Healt h and Family Services is “thorough and fair.” “The committee sub ensures that the cabinet has a process to get necessary information from existing certificate of need holders and anybody else that is relevant to their decision-making process,” Lindgren added. On the affordability issue, Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, asked Proctor and Lindgren to speak more on the potential for HB 407 to drive up health care costs. Lindgren said in states without CON, the consumer, or patient, has not seen an increase in health care costs. “The cost has gone down for folks in South Carolina under their certificate of need repeal they did a few years back,” Lindgren said. “I estimated about $2,000 a year for individuals or households there. I think there are about 40% of states that don’t have certificate of need or have it for a very limited service, and we just have not seen costs blowing up.” Committee chair Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said health care “is not really a free market enterprise,” so she would like to further examine data in other CON reform states to study the impact on the cost issue. “We need to improve access, of course. We need to maintain quality, of course. We need to maintain credentialing and all the things that factor into this, but I just want to make sure that we’re not driving up the cost of health care,” Moser said. The House Health Services Committee approved HB 407 by a 10-5 vote with two pass votes. House Minority Caucus Chair Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington, said she agrees CON needs to change in Kentucky, but she still has concerns about ensuring there is a right to appeal for all parties. “When a corporation or hospital, whether they’re for profit or not for profit, is directly impacted by a decision of the government, they need a right to appeal because the government is not always right,” Burke said while recording a “no” vote. Moser voted “yes” on the legislation, but said she would like to work with Proctor on addressing “the appeals process concerns in the legal representation piece” of the bill. HB 407 is now before the full House for consideration. The post Certificate of need reform bill gets committee approval appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less