Hometown Home Health Care v. SHPDA
In a contest for a single Birmingham-area home-health Certificate of Need, Michael Braun represented a venture-capital startup that won the grant before Alabama’s CON Review Board — over competing applicants and objecting incumbents — and then kept it: the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the Board’s decision in 2015.
Where: Alabama State Health Planning & Development Agency; Alabama Court of Civil Appeals When: Applications filed 2013; Board decision September 4, 2014; affirmed July 31, 2015 What: Hometown Home Health Care of Shelby County, LLC v. State Health Planning & Development Agency, 190 So. 3d 44 (Ala. Civ. App. 2015) Role: Counsel to the prevailing applicant, through the contested-case hearing and on appeal
The contest
Alabama requires a Certificate of Need before a new home-health agency can be established. When a service area opens, more than one provider usually wants it — and that is what happened here. Three applicants filed for the Shelby County opportunity in 2013, and incumbent home-health providers intervened to oppose new entry altogether.
That combination — rival applicants on one side, established providers defending their territory on the other — is what makes CON practice a genuinely contested corner of administrative law. Winning takes more than a complete application. It takes a record: need methodology, staffing and financial projections, and testimony that holds up under cross-examination in a contested-case hearing before an administrative law judge.
The decision
After the contested-case hearing, the CON Review Board granted the certificate to Michael’s client — a startup entering the market against established competition — and denied both competing applications. For a new entrant to out-prove rival applicants and objecting incumbents alike is the hard version of a CON win.
The appeal
The losing applicant and an objecting incumbent both appealed, and the cases were consolidated. On July 31, 2015, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals rejected each of the appellants’ arguments and affirmed the Board’s decision. The grant stood, and the agency the certificate authorized could proceed.
Defending the win mattered as much as getting it. A CON grant that falls on appeal is worth nothing; the record built at the hearing stage is what carries the result through appellate review.
Why this matters if you’re planning a health-care project
Michael served as agency attorney for the Alabama Certificate of Need Board earlier in his career, before representing applicants and providers in front of it. Both sides of that table teach the same lesson: CON contests are decided on the record, and the record is built long before anyone argues in front of the Board. If you are planning a project that needs a certificate — or facing a competitor’s application that threatens yours — the time to involve counsel is at the planning stage, not after the objections arrive.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Certificate of Need?
A Certificate of Need (CON) is a state approval that certain health-care projects — such as new facilities, services, or major expenditures — must obtain before proceeding. Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama all operate CON programs, each with its own coverage rules and procedures.
Why do CON applications end up contested?
Because a grant to one applicant is often a loss for someone else — either a rival applicant seeking the same opportunity or an incumbent provider facing new competition. Affected parties can oppose an application, and where a contested-case hearing is available it turns the application process into adversarial litigation before an administrative law judge. The mechanics differ by state: in Alabama — as in this matter — objectors intervene and litigate before the decision issues, while in Tennessee and Georgia the trial-like stage, where available, comes after the decision, with state-specific limits on who may invoke it.
What happens if a CON decision is appealed?
Review moves to the courts, which examine the agency’s decision under administrative-law standards focused on the hearing record. That is why the evidence and testimony presented at the contested-case stage matter so much: the appeal is argued on the record already built.
Does Michael handle CON matters outside Alabama?
Yes. Michael handles Certificate of Need and related regulatory matters across Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, for applicants pursuing projects and for providers opposing them.
If a certificate stands between your project and its market
Call (615) 378-8942 or email mfb@braun-law.com — early, while the record can still be shaped.
Related practice areas
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This page describes a concluded matter of public record and is for informational purposes; it does not constitute legal advice.