Certificate of need laws are a half-century old regulatory mechanism used by many states to evaluate the need for health care facilities in a specific location. State certificate of need laws determine the process for identifying whether there is need for a health care facility in a community, and outline the process to apply for a permit to build that facility. This map was created by the Washington State Department of Health in collaboration with the Center for Public Health Law Research, and captures the type of facilities requiring certificate of need, the range of variables applicable to a certificate of need determination, and the timelines applicable to procedural requirements.
This map displays key features of state certificate of need laws across all 50 states, in effect as of August 21, 2020.
This publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number NU38OT000307 awarded to ChangeLab Solutions and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.