HB 970

Present law generally requires that a person obtain a certificate of need before performing the following actions in this state: (1) The construction, development, or other establishment of a type of healthcare institution; (2) Making certain changes in the bed compliment of a healthcare institution; (3) Initiation of a burn uni t, neonatal intensive care unit, open heart surgery, organ transplantation, cardiac catheterization, linear accelerator, home health, hospice, or opiate addiction treatment provided through a nonresidential substitution-based treatment center for opiate a d diction; (4) Subject to certain exceptions, change the location of existing or certified facilities providing healthcare services and healthcare institutions; (5) Subject to certain exceptions, in a county with a population of 175,000 or less, accordin g to the 2010 federal census or a subsequent federal census, initiate MRI services or increase the number of MRI machines, except for replacing or decommissioning an existing machine; (6) The establishment of a satellite emergency department facility or a satellite inpatient facility by a hospital at a location other than the hospital's main campus; and (7) Subject to certain exceptions, initiate positron emission tomography in a county with a population of 175,000 or less, according to the 2010 federal census, or a subsequent federal census. For purposes of present law pertaining to the certificate of need, "healthcare institution"" means an agency, institution, facility, or place, whether publicly or privately owned or operated, that provides health s ervices and that is one of the following: a nursing home; a hospital; an ambulatory surgical treatment center; an intellectual disability institutional habilitation facility; a home care organization, or a certain category of service provided by a home c a re organization; an outpatient diagnostic center; a rehabilitation facility; a residential hospice; or a nonresidential substitution-based treatment center for opiate addiction. Present law further provides that the following are not a healthcare institu t ion for purposes of certificate of need: a ground ambulance; a home for the aged; a premises occupied exclusively as the professional practice office of a licensed physician or dentist; an administrative office building of a public agency related to healt h care institutions; a Christian Science sanatorium operated, or listed and certified, by the First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts; a mental health residential treatment facility; or a mental health hospital. Public Chapter 985 of 2024 m ade several changes to the certificate of need law, which are scheduled to take effect between July 1, 2025, and December 1, 2027. The changes included such things as removing intellectual disability institutional habilitation facilities, long-term care h ospitals, and ambulatory surgical treatment centers from the definition of ""healthcare institution"", and revising the process to review a denial of a certificate of need. This bill limits the healthcare institutions for which a certificate of need is req uired to nursing homes."