North Fulton Hospital is successful in opposing HealthSouth Certificate of Need application

Client(s) Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Jones Day represented North Fulton Hospital, a Tenet Healthcare facility, in its opposition to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Forsyth County, LLC's ("HealthSouth") application for a Certificate of Need ("CON") to establish a 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital (the "Project"). The Project would have resulted in HealthSouth building a new facility a mere twelve miles from North Fulton's own inpatient rehabilitation program. In September 2014, the Georgia Department of Community Health (the "Department") denied HealthSouth's CON. HealthSouth appealed the Department's decision. In March 2015, Jones Day represented North Fulton Hospital in a seven-day administrative trial before a Hearing Officer. In July 2015, the Hearing Officer affirmed the decision of the Department denying HealthSouth a CON, finding - among other things - that HealthSouth failed to establish the existence of an atypical quality barrier to inpatient rehabilitation services, which would have justified its Project. The Hearing Officer's decision was affirmed by the Department Commissioner in September 2015, rendering the decision a final agency determination.