Certificate of public need; revises the Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program.

Certificate of public need. Revises the Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program. The bill (i) removes from the list of reviewable medical care facilities 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; (ii) removes from the definition of project 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 the addition by an existing medical care facility of any medical equipment for the provision of lithotripsy and magnetic source imaging; (iii) creates a new process for registration of projects exempted from the definition of project by the bill; (iv) renames the State Medical Facilities Plan as the State Health Services Plan and establishes a State Health Services Plan task force to provide recommendations related to the content of the State Health Services Plan; (v) clarifies the content of the application for a certificate; (vi) 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; (vii) requires the Commissioner of Health to condition issuance of a certificate upon the agreement of the applicant to provide care to individuals who are eligible for benefits under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395 et seq.), Title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1396 et seq.), and 10 U.S.C. § 1071 et seq. and permits the Commissioner to condition the issuance of a certificate on the agreement of the applicant to provide specialty medical services in addition to existing options for conditioning certificates; (viii) requires every certificate holder to develop a financial assistance policy that includes specific eligibility criteria and procedures for applying for charity care, which shall be provided to a patient at the time of admission or discharge or at the time services are provided, included with any billing statements sent to uninsured patients, posted conspicuously in public areas of the medical care facility for which the certificate was issued and posted on a website maintained by the certificate holder; (ix) eliminates the requirement that a person willfully fail, refuse, or neglect to comply with a plan of correction to be subject to a civil penalty so that any failure, refusal, or neglecting to comply with a plan of correction may subject the person to a civil penalty; and (x) provides that the Commissioner may consider any changes in the circumstances of the certificate holder resulting from changes in the financing or delivery of health care services, including changes to the Commonwealth's program of medical assistance services, and any other specific circumstances of the certificate holder when determining whether conditions imposed on a certificate continue to be appropriate. The bill also (a) directs the Department of Health 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, 2020, and (b) 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 and 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 establish a public education and outreach program designed to improve public awareness of the certificate of public need process and the public's role in such process by January 1, 2021. The provisions of this bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.