Cancer Treatment Centers of America (B)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

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Synopsis: This case, a follow-up to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (A), HBS No. 313-012, begins with the debate over New Hampshire's certificate-of-need (CON) law, which restricts hospital expansion. This debate ignited significant public criticism of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a for-profit chain of five cancer-focused hospitals that had previously won a CON exception in Georgia, over its for-profit status and low acceptance of government-insured patients. The case also introduces the controversy over CTCA's cancer treatment outcomes-reporting practices, as well as the disparities in outcomes-reporting practices by cancer treatment providers generally. By providing perspectives on both sides of the issues, the case allows students to debate and draw their own conclusions about whether organizations like CTCA should be granted CON exceptions and whether the criticisms of its patient-acceptance and outcomes-reporting practices are well founded.