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2001 SESSION

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SB 1084 Regulation of health care facilities.

Introduced by: Bill Bolling | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Regulation of health care facilities. Establishes a three-phase plan for deregulation of certain medical care facilities' certificate of public need (COPN) services as required by § 32.1-102.13. This bill sets out the Joint Commission on Health Care's COPN deregulation plan in numerous enactments. The first enactment sets forth the goals and an outline of the Plan and will be effective in due course. Each of the three deregulation phases are set out in separate, designated enactments and will only become effective upon the appropriation of certain funds built into the various phases, e.g., for indigent care and Medicaid expansions.

The goals of the plan are to (i) offer more choices to patients while simultaneously providing consumers with better information about the value of services in all settings; (ii) ensure that access to essential health care services for all Virginians, particularly the indigent and the uninsured, is preserved and improved, in so far as possible; (iii) provide strong quality protections that correspond to service intensity and/or patient risk and apply similarly across all health care settings; (iv) support indigent care and medical education costs at the academic health centers; and ensure that the Commonwealth's health care financing programs reimburse at a level that covers the allowable costs of care and that the Commonwealth meets its obligations as a responsible business partner.

Phase I proposes to deregulate equipment purchases and introduction of new services for computed tomographic (CT) scanning, lithotripsy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic source imaging (MSI), positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning, and all nuclear medicine imaging.

Phase II proposes to deregulate equipment purchases and the introduction of new services for cardiac catheterization, gamma knife surgery, and radiation therapy.

Phase III proposes to deregulate ambulatory surgery centers, neonatal special care, obstetric services, open-heart surgery, and organ transplantation services.

Simultaneously with the elimination of the COPN requirements, the providers of the COPN-deregulated services will be required to comply with licensure requirements promulgated and administered by the Board of Health, consistent with appropriate existing, nationally recognized accreditation standards.

The various COPN-deregulated providers will also be required to report claims data, certain quality outcome information for selected high risk procedures, where applicable, and annual financial information on indigent care. Studies of the effects of the deregulation and various related health care issues, e.g., the funding of medical education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, various Medicaid eligibility issues, and contributions to indigent care by the COPN-deregulated providers, will be required at each phase of the deregulation.

Much of the substance of the Plan is set out in the various enactment clauses, i.e., the appropriation conditions, the establishment of a task force to assist the Board of Health, requirements for emergency regulations at appropriate intervals, etc. Although the various provisions of this bill are contingent upon appropriation of funds, the authority to determine the amount and sufficiency of the funding is left to the relevant appropriation act.


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