Florida Senate - 2017 SB 232
By Senator Grimsley
26-00118-17 2017232__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to health care facilities; amending s.
3 395.003, F.S.; requiring that, as a condition of
4 initial licensure and license renewal, ambulatory
5 surgical centers provide at least the same amount of
6 services to Medicare and Medicaid patients and
7 patients who qualify for charity care as certain other
8 licensed providers; requiring ambulatory surgical
9 centers to report certain data; defining a term for
10 purposes of a subsection; requiring ambulatory
11 surgical centers to comply with certain building and
12 lifesafety codes in certain circumstances; amending s.
13 395.6025, F.S.; revising the circumstances under which
14 statutory rural hospitals and operators of rural
15 hospitals are not required to obtain a certificate of
16 need for the construction of a replacement rural
17 hospital; providing an effective date.
18
19 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
20
21 Section 1. Present subsections (6) through (10) of section
22 395.003, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (7)
23 through (11), respectively, a new subsection (6) is added to
24 that section, and present subsections (9) and (10) of that
25 section are amended, to read:
26 395.003 Licensure; denial, suspension, and revocation.—
27 (6) As a condition of initial licensure and license
28 renewal, an ambulatory surgical center must provide services to
29 Medicare patients, Medicaid patients, and patients who qualify
30 for charity care in an amount equal to or greater than the
31 applicable district average among licensed providers of similar
32 services. Ambulatory surgical centers shall report the same data
33 required to be reported to the agency by hospitals under s.
34 408.061 or otherwise published for hospitals by the agency. For
35 purposes of this subsection, the term “charity care” means
36 uncompensated care delivered to uninsured patients with incomes
37 at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level when such
38 services are preauthorized by the licensed providers and are not
39 subject to collection procedures. An ambulatory surgical center
40 that does not discharge a patient until after midnight of the
41 day of the patient’s procedure shall comply with the same
42 building codes and lifesafety codes that apply to a hospital.
43 (10)(9) A hospital licensed as of June 1, 2004, shall be
44 exempt from subsection (9) (8) as long as the hospital maintains
45 the same ownership, facility street address, and range of
46 services that were in existence on June 1, 2004. Any transfer of
47 beds, or other agreements that result in the establishment of a
48 hospital or hospital services within the intent of this section,
49 shall be subject to subsection (9) (8). Unless the hospital is
50 otherwise exempt under subsection (9) (8), the agency shall deny
51 or revoke the license of a hospital that violates any of the
52 criteria set forth in that subsection.
53 (11)(10) The agency may adopt rules implementing the
54 licensure requirements set forth in subsection (9) (8). Within
55 14 days after rendering its decision on a license application or
56 revocation, the agency shall publish its proposed decision in
57 the Florida Administrative Register. Within 21 days after
58 publication of the agency’s decision, any authorized person may
59 file a request for an administrative hearing. In administrative
60 proceedings challenging the approval, denial, or revocation of a
61 license pursuant to subsection (9) (8), the hearing must be
62 based on the facts and law existing at the time of the agency’s
63 proposed agency action. Existing hospitals may initiate or
64 intervene in an administrative hearing to approve, deny, or
65 revoke licensure under subsection (9) (8) based upon a showing
66 that an established program will be substantially affected by
67 the issuance or renewal of a license to a hospital within the
68 same district or service area.
69 Section 2. Section 395.6025, Florida Statutes, is amended
70 to read:
71 395.6025 Rural hospital replacement facilities.
72 Notwithstanding s. 408.036, a hospital defined as a statutory
73 rural hospital in accordance with s. 395.602, or an a not-for
74 profit operator of rural hospitals, is not required to obtain a
75 certificate of need for the construction of a replacement new
76 hospital located in a county with a population of at least
77 15,000 but no more than 18,000 and a density of fewer than 100
78 30 persons per square mile, or a replacement facility, provided
79 that the replacement, or new, facility is not located within 15
80 10 miles of the site of a the currently licensed rural hospital
81 in an adjacent county and within the current primary service
82 area. As used in this section, the term “service area” means the
83 fewest number of zip codes that account for 75 percent of the
84 hospital’s discharges for the most recent 5-year period, based
85 on information available from the hospital inpatient discharge
86 database in the Florida Center for Health Information and
87 Transparency at the Agency for Health Care Administration.
88 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.