A group of doctors has sued North Carolina.
The lawsuit is targeted at the State Health Coordinating Council, a 27-member panel that determines the rules by which hospitals can add operating rooms and buy expensive new diagnostic tools.
Members are appointed by the governor and work in the health care industries, but they are exempt from the state's ethics rules, which guide hundreds of other commissions.
Jeff Horton, acting director of the Division of State Health Regulation, said the rules don't apply to the council because it is made up of volunteers and its decisions are non-binding. He argued that members with conflicts of interest recuse themselves.
But the doctors argue in their lawsuit that the exemption gives the public no assurances that decisions are "not arbitrary, unreasoned or affected by the self-interest of its members." (N&O)
