Healthcare Reform
Healthcare
Reform
Dan Pohlgeers has spent his entire career on the front lines of healthcare in our region — as a licensed occupational therapist, a certified hand therapist with two decades of clinical practice, and as the owner of Sunesis Medical. He knows this system from the inside, and he knows what's broken.
For years, Dan has been one of the most consistent and outspoken voices calling for transparency, accountability, and real competition in healthcare across Upper East Tennessee. When Dan speaks about healthcare in this region, it comes from 36 years of lived experience.
Accountability
Without Authority
When Wellmont Health System and Mountain States Health Alliance merged in 2018 to form Ballad Health, it created a hospital monopoly covering roughly 1.1 million people across 29 counties in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. To shield that merger from federal antitrust action, Tennessee issued a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA), which was supposed to guarantee that the benefits of the merger would outweigh the loss of competition.
Dan served on the Tennessee COPA Local Advisory Council from its founding and appeared before the Federal Trade Commission to raise concerns heard directly from residents — including the downgrading of neonatal and trauma care in Kingsport, ongoing nursing shortages, and physicians who said they had no input into these changes.
"I would really like to think that if TDH won't work on this to make the COPA Local Advisory Council more relevant, that the General Assembly would."
Dan does not hesitate to name what he sees as a fundamental conflict of interest in our current state representation. The incumbent state senator chairs the Senate Health Committee while listing Ballad Health as a source of income every year since Ballad was formed.
"As a state senator, I think that's a conflict — any legislation that has to do with certificate of need, the COPA, scope of practice, Health Facilities Commission, licensure, boards — all that goes through his committee."
The incumbent senator chairs the Senate Health Committee while listing Ballad Health as a source of income on his annual Statement of Disclosure of Interests — every year since Ballad was formed.
That is not representation. That is a problem.
Competition Is
the Answer
Tennessee's Certificate of Need law requires any healthcare provider that wants to build a new facility or expand services to first obtain government approval — a process that incumbent hospital systems can use to block new competitors from entering the market. Dan believes this law has outlived any purpose it once served and is actively harming patients in our region.
"Competition improves quality, decreases costs, and improves innovation. We've got to do something to improve access to rural health care in our rural counties. Doing away with CON is a big thing."
This is not a fringe position. President Trump's administration has directed states that retain CON laws to eliminate them or risk losing funds from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Initiative — which currently has $207 million earmarked for Tennessee. Governor Lee's administration has pledged to eliminate CON, though the debate drags on in Nashville. Dan will go to the General Assembly ready to finish the job, without delay and without compromise.
A Senator Who Works
for Patients
Dan Pohlgeers has the background, the track record, and the independence to fight for the healthcare reform our region deserves. He has no financial ties to Ballad Health. He has no conflict of interest. He has spent years doing the unglamorous work of sitting on advisory councils, appearing before federal agencies, and speaking up when others stayed quiet.
"My challenge would be — if you believe health care in Upper East Tennessee is worse now than it was eight years ago, it's time for a change and you need to vote for me."
Upper East Tennessee deserves a senator who works for patients, not for the monopoly.
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