Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow (D-Red Bay) believes what's good for Birmingham, Huntsville and Alabama's major metropolitan areas is also good for Franklin County and the Shoals.
That's why Morrow is actively supporting a proposed cancer center that would be a joint project between the future North Alabama Medical Center and the University of Alabama Birmingham health care system.
“Franklin County folks shouldn't have to go to Huntsville or Birmingham for their cancer treatment. That's why this project is so important,” Morrow said.
The location of the cancer center would be adjacent to the new hospital that is being constructed in Florence, along Veterans Drive just north of the Patton Island Bridge.
Northwest Alabama Cancer Care LLC applied to the State of Alabama Certificate of Need Board seeking permission to build a 19,000 square foot facility. The application describes a “comprehensive cancer treatment facility that would expand ECM Hospital's current treatment services, while adding the latest technology and resources from the UAB Health System.”
The proposed center has met with opposition from Alliance Oncology, a division of Alliance HealthCare Services, Inc., a national provider of outsourced healthcare services. Alliance Oncology has a partnership agreement with Huntsville Hospital Health System.
Alliance's opposition is based on the project “not being in the best interest of the public.”
RegionalCare applied with the board in 2013 to build the cancer center but that application was denied by the Certificate of Need Board.
Alliance had the option of requesting a contested hearing, but the deadline for such a request has passed. The board will meet January 17, 2018, in Montgomery, to consider the application. Morrow plans to attend and address the board at that hearing.
“The Shoals area can have a state-of-the-art cancer center that's easily accessible to all of our citizens,” Morrow said. “UAB is willing to invest its time, money and clinical expertise in our area and this will give patients twho are leaving Franklin County and the Shoals a choice to be treated by UAB in the Shoals area instead of having to travel a long distance.
“Why shouldn't patients have this choice?,” Morrow added.
Morrow held a press conference at the proposed site of the cancer center on December 15th, joined by several elected officials from the Shoals.
Russell Pigg, ECM Hospital CEO, said the cancer center would continue his facility's commitment to providing top-notch health care for its patients.
“This partnership will bring UAB cancer knowledge and therapies to this part of the state, which is a huge asset to patients and shows our interest as an organization in enhancing quality clinical care and new services,” Pigg said.
Pigg said construction of the cancer center would begin as soon as the certificate of need is approved.
Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Tuscumbia) said he will not oppose or support the proposed cancer center. Instead, Stutts said he has concerns whether the Certificate of Need Review Board is still necessary in Alabama.
“I'm not in that fight but the current law is the CON board makes the call. But it's an expensive, long process and takes a lot of money, time and patience to navigate through the system,” Stutts said.
“There's only so much money in the health care system and that money is generated by taking care of patients. When you spend millions of dollars fighting projects or advocating projects, that's millions of dollars that could go back into the health care system for technology, employee raises and to provide better services,” he added.
CON laws are currently enforced in 35 states, according to information from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. That number is on the decline, with Wisconsin and New Hampshire the most recent states to no do away with CON laws. Florida is in the process of dropping its CON law.
Stutts explained that the original purpose for CON boards no longer justifies their existence and that the boards merely create another level of government red tape in the health care process.
“It's just another level of bureaucracy,” Stutts said. “Personally, I'd like to do away with the CON board and let the free market decide who builds what. The purpose of the CON board was to help control health care costs by controlling overbuilding. But today, the federally controlled programs (Medicare, Medicaid) reimburse on a set rate, which is another reason to do away with the CON board.”
Stutts also said the CON board appointments (which are made by the governor in Alabama) are ripe for corruption.
“That's what did in Richard Scrushy and Don Siegelman,” Stutts said.
Siegelman, the former Alabama governor, and Scrushy, then-HealthSouth CEO, were convicted of federal charges relating to Siegelman's appointment of Scrushy to the CON Review Board in 1999.
