Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital v. Washington State Department of Health

The Washington State Department of Health (Department) will not license Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (Memorial) to perform certain procedures known as elective percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), which are used to treat diseased arteries of the heart. Examples of such procedures include stent implantation and laser angioplasty. Although Memorial already performs PCI in emergencies (no license required), it cannot perform “elective” procedures without a license that is required as part of the state’s broader “certificate of need” regulatory regime. See Wash. Admin. Code § 246-310-700 . According to the Department, the community Memorial serves does not need another PCI provider.

The concept of certificate of need regimes, which many states enforce, is to avoid private parties making socially inefficient investments in health-care resources they might make if left unregulated. A certificate of need program corrects the market by requiring preapproval for certain investments and, in theory, thereby ensures that providers will make only necessary investments in health care. One type of investment the state of Washington regulates is the capacity to perform…