SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2000 SESSION

  • | print version

SB 665 Rural health care plan; establishment.

Introduced by: W. Roscoe Reynolds | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Rural health. Requires the Commissioner of Health to submit to the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) an application to establish a Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program in Virginia. The Commissioner is also required to develop a rural health care plan for the Commonwealth. The rural health care plan must be developed and revised as necessary as may be required by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and amendments to its provisions. The plan has to be developed in cooperation and consultation with the Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association, the Medical Society of Virginia representatives of rural hospitals, and experts within the Department of Health on rural health programs. The Commissioner may seek the assistance of the Virginia Health Planning Board and the regional health planning agencies in developing the plan. The plan must verify that Virginia will be designating critical access hospitals and certifying some facilities as "necessary providers" of health care in any rural area, including the process, methodology, and eligibility criteria for such designations or certifications. The plan must reflect local needs and resources and must include (as required by federal law) a mechanism for creating one or more rural health networks, ways to encourage rural health service regionalization, and initiatives to improve access to health services for rural Virginians. In addition and notwithstanding other law or regulations to the contrary, the plan must use, as minimum standards for critical access hospitals, the certification regulations for critical access hospitals promulgated by the Health Care Financing Administration pursuant to Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, and authorize critical access hospitals to utilize a maximum of 10 beds as swing beds. Critical access hospitals are not prohibited from leasing unused portions of their facilities or reorganizing their corporate structures to facilitate the continuation of the nursing home beds that were licensed to such hospital prior to the designation as a critical access hospital.


FULL TEXT

AMENDMENTS

HISTORY