CON Update

As you know from my recent blog posts this spring, Jupiter Medical Center spent significant energy to keep Florida legislators from repealing the Certificate of Need program. Certificate of Need is a regulatory process that requires certain health care providers to obtain state approval before offering new or expanded services here in Florida.

In my opinion, repealing CON was not good news for the consumer because it had the potential to not only increase cost, but could also lead to a decrease in the accessibility and quality of health care in our state. Thankfully, the Florida Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have eliminated CON. This means Jupiter Medical Center will continue to do what we do every day - offer the highest quality and most accessible care at an affordable price.

We were proud to work with others across the region to ensure that the bill did not come up for a vote in the Senate. But this work would not have been possible without the support we received from thousands of our fellow Floridians who sent messages, called their legislators and shared our efforts via social media. I am grateful and I thank them for their support. In addition, I am extremely thankful for the legislators who in return, took the time to listen and recognize the significance of the issue. Without them, we would not have had the success we did.

At the end of the day, the reality is that CON is smart and appropriate regulation that works and we are glad that it remains. Eliminating CON would end up benefitting the entrepreneurs that want to focus only on profitable services, instead of balancing these with vital services the community needs. When it comes to the people in our community, we cannot let profit be the sole driver of their health care.

However, we believe that the debate over CON is not over and will most likely get taken back up when the state legislature convenes in the fall. We will continue to do all we can do to make sure that CON remains in place and that all Floridians have access to the best and most affordable care. Stay tuned for updates here in the next few months on this vitally important topic and as always, thanks for reading.