Certificate of public need; hospitals licensed by DBHDS psychiatric beds.

Certificate of public need; hospitals licensedby the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services;psychiatric beds. Excludes from the list of medical care facilitiesfor which a certificate of public need is required hospitals licensedas a provider by the Department of Behavioral Health and DevelopmentalServices. The bill excludes the following from the list of projectsfor which a certificate of public need is required for certain medicalcare facilities: (i) an increase or relocation of psychiatric beds licensed by the Department, (ii) the introduction of any psychiatricservice when such medical care facility has not provided such servicein the previous 12 months, and (iii) the conversion of beds to psychiatricbeds. The bill also modifies the list of projects for which a certificateof public need is required for certain medical care facilities byrequiring a certificate for the conversion of any psychiatric inpatientbeds to nonpsychiatric inpatient beds. Under current law, a certificateis required for the conversion of a psychiatric bed to a nonpsychiatricbed only when the psychiatric bed was approved pursuant to a Requestfor Applications (RFA).