Association Between Certificate of Need Legislation and Radiation Therapy Use Among Elderly Patients With Early Cancers

Abstract

As part of the federal Health Planning Resources Development Act of 1974, Certificate of Need (CON) programs were implemented in many states. The rationale behind CON programs is that excess supply of health care capacity leads to increased health care utilization because providers must increase revenue to meet fixed costs; therefore, by controlling capacity to only meeting actual need, overutilization is reduced (1). Opponents argue that CON programs reduce competition and may actually increase health care utilization. We examined the association between CON legislation and use of radiation therapy in 2 patient groups in which omission of radiation therapy may be appropriate in select cases, to evaluate the potential impact of CON programs on health care utilization.