National Health Planning and Resources Development Act


The National Health Planning and Resources Development Act, or Public Law 93-641 is a piece of 1974 American Congressional legislation. Many Certificate of Need programs trace their origin to the act which offered incentives for states to implement these programs.

Details of the Act

In this Act, three distinct existing programs were consolidated:
Congress realized that the provision of federal funds for the construction of new health care facilities was contributing to increasing health care costs by generating duplication of facilities.
The intent of Congress in passing this Act was to create throughout the United States, a strengthened and improved federal-, state- and area-wide system of health planning and resources development that would help provide solutions to several identified problems.
The perceived problems the Act was intended to address were as follows:
This legislation was also intended to encourage health care providers to play an active role in developing health policy.