Healthcare Roundup—Georgia lawmakers clash over CON law

A House bill addressing Certificate of Need laws in Georgia has created a controversy in that state as lawmakers consider the measure that would revamp the state's healthcare regulatory system, Georgia Health News reported.  CON laws require health systems to receive approval for construction or expansion of certain facilities and services, but the proposal would relax those rules with a licensing framework. Home healthcare workers in Illinois get as little as eight hours of training. Some home healthcare workers only need to receive eight hours of training before they are able to start offering nonmedical services in patients' homes, the Chicago Tribune reported. It's a growing debate for a fast-growing industry. Some patient advocates say that amount of training is not enough as these workers take on increasingly complex responsibilities and are calling for more stringent requirements, while some say on-the-job experience—not a few additional hours of training—is what makes the difference