Hospitals Back Proposed Bill Limiting Controls on Research

A Massachusetts hospital lobby group last week won the first round of a legislative dispute when a bill limiting government control of hospital research and education programs passed the Joint Committee on Health Care of the Massachusetts state legislature.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA), which includes Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, wants the state legislature to exempt hospitals from requirements to file certificate-of-need statements justifying the costs of research and education projects.

The federal certificate-of-need law, which must be instituted by 1978 in order for Massachusetts to qualify for federal health funds, is designed to ensure that hospitals do not make unnecessary expenditures raising patient hospital costs.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health does not want the legislature to exempt hospital research and education programs from the certificate-of-need law.

The joint committee established a task force this summer to decide whether the exemptions should be included in the certificate-of-need law. The task force never issued a recommendation to the committee because MHA submitted a bill directly to the joint committee.

The joint committee amended the MHA bill so that only financially self-sufficient research and education programs will be exempted.

Richard Montalbano, director of the state's certificate-of-need program, accused the MHA yesterday of reneging on its agreement to work within the framework of the special task force by independently submitting its own bill to the joint committee.

Dr. Charles A. Sanders, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital, defended the MHA yesterday, saying the organization agreed only to discuss the issue of research and education projects with the task force.

He said the MHA's decision to submit a bill directly to the joint committee was not improper.