Iowa Health Department’s Go-Ahead for Eye Surgery Center Upheld

Iowa’s public health department properly granted a certificate of need for an ambulatory eye surgery center after finding it could offer less costly, more convenient, and appropriate alternatives to existing facilities, a state appeals court said.

The department’s decision was justified by its finding that existing facilities opposing Fox Eye Surgery LLC’s CON application didn’t show they would be impacted by the Cedar Rapids project, the Iowa Court of Appeals said Wednesday.

The court also said evidence that Fox’s owner, Lee Birchansky, had turned down an offered interest in an existing facility and already performed many of his surgeries there ...