Does Ohio Require a "Certificate of Need" for Senior Care Facilities?

Certificate of Need (CON) laws require a state health planning agency to approve new healthcare capacity before it can be built, on the theory that unchecked growth drives up costs. Ohio used CON laws broadly starting in the 1970s but repealed most of them over the following decades — by the late 1990s, general hospital and health-service CON requirements were largely gone. What remains today is narrower and applies specifically to long-term care: new nursing home beds and certain nursing facility expansions in Ohio still go through a state review process tied to bed-need formulas, which is one reason the supply of licensed nursing facility beds changes slowly. Assisted living (residential care facility) construction is not subject to the same CON-style bed-need review, which is part of why Columbus has seen more new assisted living and memory care construction than new nursing home beds in recent years. Families evaluating a facility's licensing status should still confirm current standing directly with the Ohio Department of Health's inspection records.