HB 0773 2004
1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to satellite hospital facilities; amending
3	s. 408.036, F.S.; providing an exemption from certificate-
4	of-need review if a hospital licensed under ch. 395, F.S.,
5	transfers up to 100 acute care beds in order to establish
6	a satellite hospital facility in the same county as the
7	hospital's primary location; requiring the hospital to
8	meet specified criteria in order to transfer the acute
9	care beds to a satellite facility; prohibiting a hospital
10	from establishing a satellite hospital facility if all the
11	licensed hospital beds in the county are owned by or
12	affiliated with the same corporation; providing an
13	effective date.
14
15	WHEREAS, the state has the responsibility to ensure that
16	health care is available now and in the future throughout the
17	state to all its residents, regardless of their socioeconomic
18	status or station in life, and
19	WHEREAS, many of the state's residents are underserved for
20	their health care needs and rely upon certain hospitals to
21	provide them with their health care needs, and
22	WHEREAS, the state recognizes the importance of maintaining
23	a system of hospitals throughout the state to ensure that the
24	underserved population has access to hospitals when the need
25	arises and acknowledges that these hospitals serve a critical
26	state purpose in providing this care, and
27	WHEREAS, these hospitals have historically provided
28	substantial amounts of Medicaid, charity, and uncompensated care
29	to the underserved populations, including the working poor, and
30	WHEREAS, it is an important state interest to ensure that
31	the hospitals continue to provide extraordinary amounts of
32	health care services to the state's underserved populations, and
33	WHEREAS, these hospitals have experienced a historically
34	low census of patients with the ability to pay for the
35	hospital's services, and
36	WHEREAS, these hospitals have been in existence for many
37	years and have become geographically place-bound with little
38	opportunity to expand beyond their current facility property
39	lines, and
40	WHEREAS, it is in the state's best interest to ensure these
41	hospitals' financial viability in order to serve an essential
42	public purpose by providing care to the underserved, and
43	WHEREAS, it is in the state's interest to ensure that the
44	hospitals serving largely underserved populations have the
45	ability to broaden and increase their source of commercially or
46	other compensated care, and
47	WHEREAS, there is a need for these hospitals to offset the
48	economic burdens of being the primary source of care for
49	underserved populations, including Medicaid, charity, and
50	uncompensated care, with more and a wider variety of patients,
51	and
52	WHEREAS, these hospitals need to serve a wider segment of
53	the community to increase their census with additional patients
54	and payor groups, NOW, THEREFORE,
55
56	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
57
58	Section 1. Paragraph (u) is added to subsection (3) of
59	section 408.036, Florida Statutes, to read:
60	408.036 Projects subject to review; exemptions.--
61	(3) EXEMPTIONS.--Upon request, the following projects are
62	subject to exemption from the provisions of subsection (1):
63	(u) For the transfer of up to 100 acute care beds in order
64	to establish a satellite hospital facility within the same
65	county if the hospital licensed under chapter 395 meets the
66	following conditions:
67	1. The hospital's census of all licensed acute care beds
68	has been below 60 percent for the 5 years prior to the time it
69	notifies the agency of its intention to establish the satellite
70	hospital facility;
71	2. The hospital's combined gross revenue from Medicaid and
72	charity patients exceeds $60 million per year for the 2 years
73	prior to the time it notifies the agency of its intention to
74	establish the satellite hospital facility;
75	3. The satellite hospital facility meets all the hospital
76	licensure requirements under chapter 395; and
77	4. The satellite hospital facility is limited in size to
78	the 100 licensed acute care beds transferred from the existing
79	facility.
80
81	This paragraph does not apply if all licensed hospital beds in
82	the county are owned by or affiliated with the same corporation.
83	Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2004.