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2019 SESSION

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HB 1680 Certificate of public need; changes to Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program.

Introduced by: Robert D. Orrock, Sr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Certificate of public need. Makes changes to the Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program. The bill (i) removes specialized centers or clinics or that portion of a physician's office developed for the provision of lithotripsy, magnetic source imaging, or nuclear medicine imaging from the list of reviewable medical care facilities; (ii) provides that establishment of a medical care facility to replace an existing medical care facility with the same primary service area does not constitute a project; (iii) removes introduction into an existing medical care facility of any new lithotripsy, magnetic source imaging, or obstetrical service that the facility has never provided or has not provided in the previous 12 months and addition by an existing medical care facility of any medical equipment for the provision of lithotripsy and magnetic source imaging (MSI) from the definition of project; (iv) removes additions of operating rooms at an existing hospital or at any medical care facility when each operating room to be added will be utilized solely for surgical procedures for which the average number of such surgeries performed in hospitals in the Commonwealth during the previous three years was less than 0.1 percent of the total number of all surgeries performed in the Commonwealth during the same period from the list of projects for which a certificate is required; (v) eliminates the requirement for a certificate of public need for certain projects involving mental hospitals or psychiatric hospitals and intermediate care facilities established primarily for the medical, psychiatric, or psychological treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with substance abuse; (vi) adds any facility that has common ownership with an affiliated licensed hospital located within 35 miles of the facility and that includes, as part of the facility, a dedicated emergency department as defined in 42 C.F.R. § 489.24(b) that is subject to the requirements of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to the list of medical care facilities for which a certificate of public need is required; (vii) limits the definition of "project" to those undertaken by a medical care facility other than a medical care facility that has common ownership with an affiliated licensed hospital located within 35 miles of the facility and that includes, as part of the facility, a dedicated emergency department as defined in 42 C.F.R. § 489.24(b) that is subject to the requirements of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act when the project is undertaken within 10 miles of a general hospital and projects undertaken by a medical care facility that has common ownership with an affiliated licensed hospital located within 35 miles of the facility and that includes, as part of the facility, a dedicated emergency department as defined in 42 C.F.R. § 489.24(b) that is subject to the requirements of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act regardless of where the project is undertaken; (viii) creates a new process for registration of projects exempted from the definition of project by the bill; (ix) establishes an expedited 45-day review process for applicants for projects determined to be uncontested or to present limited health planning impacts; (x) renames the State Medical Facilities Plan as the State Health Services Plan and establishes a State Health Services Plan Advisory Council to provide recommendations related to the content of the State Health Services Plan; (xi) clarifies the content of the application for a certificate; (xii) reduces the timeline for a person to be made party to the case for good cause from 80 calendar days to four days following completion of the review and submission of recommendations related to an application; (xiii) requires the State Health Commissioner to approve an application that is consistent with the State Health Services Plan unless the State Health Commissioner determines that, upon consideration of certain factors, the application should not be approved; and (xiv) makes review by a regional health planning agency optional for the application.

The bill also (a) delays the effective date of clauses (i) through (xiv) until July 1, 2020, (b) directs the Board of Health to review the geographic area around a general hospital within which a certificate of public need is required to undertake a project set forth in the definition of "project," determine whether the distance identified is appropriate, and, if the Board finds that the distance is not appropriate, develop recommendations for an alternative distance or other measure for determine the scope of the area around a general hospital within which a certificate of public need shall be required to undertake a project, and report such recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by October 1, 2019; (c) directs the Department to develop recommendations to reduce the duration of the average review cycle for applications for certificates of public need to not more than 120 days and to report on its recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2019; (d) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to review charity care services delivered throughout the Commonwealth and recommend changes to the definition of charity care and to the types of charity care requirements imposed on various health care services and report to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2019; (e) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a group of stakeholders to study and make recommendations related to the appropriate authority of the State Health Commissioner to impose additional conditions on certificates; (f) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to implement a system to ensure that data needed to evaluate whether an application for a certificate is consistent with the State Health Services Plan is timely and reliable, to make all public records pertaining to applications for certificates and the review process available in real-time in a searchable, digital format online, to make an inventory of capacity authorized by certificates of public need, both operational and not yet operational, available in a digital format online, and to make charity care conditions, charity care compliance reporting status, and details on the exact amount of charity care provided or contributed and to whom it was provided or contributed available in a digital format online; (g) directs the State Health Commissioner to develop an analytical framework to guide the work of the State Health Services Plan Advisory Council; and (h) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources convene a work group composed of stakeholders to study and make recommendations for the creation of a multi-member panel to review decisions of the State Health Commissioner denying issuance of a certificate of public need for a proposed project and report his findings to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by December 1, 2019.

 


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