APNewsBreak: DHEC suspending hospital program

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chairman of the South Carolina House committee that deals with the state’s budget says the House didn’t intend to eliminate a program where state regulators review whether new medical facilities can be built.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian White said Friday the House’s vote to sustain Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto taking away $1.7 million from the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Certificate of Need program was just a matter of money.

DHEC and the governor say the vote supported ending the program that reviews whether hospitals could expand, whether nursing homes could be built and whether doctors could buy equipment that costs more than $600,000.

The law requiring the program remains on the books. White says DHEC can find other ways to fund it.