The financial impact of the proposed free-standing emergency department in Houston County, central Georgia, has been the subject of ongoing dispute between Coliseum Medical Center and neighboring hospitals. According to lead counsel Jason Bring, the planned location of the new department is bound to draw more patients from the vicinity, inescapably impacting the revenue of existing facilities. An estimated decrease of at least 10% in both patients and income is anticipated.
Represented by Kathlynn Polvino from Health Law Strategists, Coliseum Medical Center gained approval to proceed with their project thrice, from the certificate of need department commissioner. This decision came in the light of reports indicating that emergency room wait times at Houston Hospitals and the Medical Center of Peach County were bordering on three and a half hours, a situation which substantiated Coliseum’s case for the additional facility.
Despite the official approvals, the proposal is now facing another round of appeals from the competing hospitals who argue that this new addition would have ‘devastating financial consequences’ on their facilities. The Georgia Court of Appeals is set to hear this dispute again on Tuesday.
For more intricate details on this ongoing legal tug of war, it is worth visiting the original report.