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Podcast: Cascade CounterPoint
Episode: QP: Oregon Needs More Hospital Beds and Less Regulation
Description: Full Text: Tired of wearing a mask? You’re not alone. In August, Governor Brown reinstated mask mandates in an effort to prevent Oregon’s hospitals from running out of beds. While the Delta variant is an easy scapegoat for this near catastrophe, the state’s outdated certificate-of-need laws have prevented healthcare providers from expanding capacity for decades.
When a healthcare provider in Oregon wants to build a new hospital or expand certain services, the provider must undergo a lengthy review process to prove that there is a “need” for the new facility. During the review, competing hospitals...