2021 Georgia Code
Title 31 - Health
Chapter 6 - State Health Planning and Development
Article 4 - Reports
§ 31-6-70. Reports to the Department by Certain Health Care Facilities and All Ambulatory Surgical Centers and Imaging Centers; Public Availability

1. There shall be required from each health care facility in this state requiring a certificate of need and all ambulatory surgical centers and imaging centers, whether or not exempt from obtaining a certificate of need under this chapter, an annual report of such health care information as determined by the department. The report shall be due on the date determined by the department and shall cover the 12 month period preceding each such calendar year.
2. The report required under subsection (a) of this Code section shall contain the following information:
   1. Total gross revenues;
   2. Bad debts;
   3. Amounts of free care extended, excluding bad debts;
   4. Contractual adjustments;
   5. Amounts of care provided under a Hill-Burton commitment;
   6. Amounts of charity care provided to indigent and nonindigent persons;
   7. Amounts of outside sources of funding from governmental entities, philanthropic groups, or any other source, including the proportion of any such funding dedicated to the care of indigent persons;
   8. For cases involving indigent persons and nonindigent person receiving charity care:
      1. The number of persons treated;
      2. The number of inpatients and outpatients;
      3. Total patient days;
      4. The number of patients categorized by county of residence; and
      5. The indigent and nonindigent care costs incurred by the health care facility by county of residence;
   9. Transfers to a hospital or hospital emergency department, including both direct transfers and transfers by emergency medical services;
   10. Number of rooms, beds, procedures, and patients, including, without limitation, demographic information and payer source;
   11. Patient origin by county; and
   12. Operational information such as procedure types, volumes, and charges.
3. As used in subsection (b) of this Code section, "indigent persons" means persons having as a maximum allowable income level an amount corresponding to 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline.
4. The department shall provide a form for the reports required by this Code section and may provide in said form for further categorical divisions of the information listed in subsection (b) or (c.1) of this Code section.
5. 1. In the event the department does not receive an annual report from a health care facility requiring a certificate of need or an ambulatory surgical center or imaging center, whether or not exempt from obtaining a certificate of need under this chapter, on or before the date such report was due or receives a timely but incomplete report, the department shall notify the health care facility or center regarding the deficiencies and shall be authorized to fine such health care facility or center an amount not to exceed $500.00 per day for every day up to 30 days and $1,000.00 per day for every day over 30 days for every day of such untimely or deficient report.
   2. In the event the department does not receive an annual report from a health care facility within 180 days following the date such report was due or receives a timely but incomplete report which is not completed within such 180 days, the department shall be authorized to revoke such health care facility's certificate of need in accordance with Code Section 31-6-45.
6. No application for a certificate of need under Article 3 of this chapter shall be considered as complete if the applicant has not submitted the annual report required by subsection (a) of this Code section.
7. The department shall make publicly available all annual reports submitted pursuant to this Code section on the department website. The department shall also provide a copy of such annual reports to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chairpersons of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
8. All health care facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, and imaging centers required to submit an annual report pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section shall make such annual reports publicly available on their websites.

(Code 1981, §31-6-70, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 827, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 573, § 1; Ga. L. 1988, p. 13, § 31; Ga. L. 1999, p. 296, § 22; Ga. L. 2008, p. 12, § 1-1/SB 433; Ga. L. 2019, p. 148, § 1-12/HB 186; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 31/SB 429.)

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, in subsection (a), substituted "report of such health care information as determined by" for "report of certain health care information to be submitted to" near the end of the first sentence and substituted "date determined by the department" for "last day of January" in the second sentence; inserted "and nonindigent" in paragraph (b)(6) and subparagraph (b)(8)(E); deleted "and" at the end of paragraph (b)(7); inserted "and nonindigent person receiving charity care" in paragraph (b)(8); substituted a semicolon for a period at the end of subparagraph (b)(8)(E); and added paragraphs (b)(9) through (b)(12); in subsection (d), substituted "reports required by this Code section" for "report required by subsection (a) of this Code section" near the middle and substituted "subsections (b) or (c.1)" for "subsection (b)" near the end; deleted "information responsive to subparagraph (c)(2)(A) of Code Section 31-6-40 by December 30, 2008, or" following "does not receive" near the beginning of paragraph (e)(1); and added subsections (g) and (h).

The 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted "subsection (b)" for "subsections (b)" in subsection (d).

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2008, "within such" was substituted for "with such" in paragraph (e)(2).

- Ga. L. 2008, p. 12, § 3-1/SB 433, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section shall only apply to applications submitted on or after July 1, 2008.

- For annual survey on administrative law, see 64 Mercer L. Rev. 39 (2012).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Exhaustion of administrative remedies.

- Court of appeals erred in ruling that a society of surgery centers did not have to exhaust administrative remedies under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-13-19(a), in the society's ction seeking to prevent the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) and the Departmen'ts Commissioner from requiring the Department's members to respond to certain disputed requests in an annual survey because the "acting outside statutory authority" exception to the exhaustion requirement did not apply; the society did not allege that DCH was acting wholly outside the Department's jurisdiction under O.C.G.A. § 31-6-70 to conduct surveys, but instead, the society claimed that the manner in which the survey was being conducted did not fully comply with the procedural requirements of the statute. Ga. Dep't of Cmty. Health v. Ga. Soc'y of Ambulatory Surgery Ctrs., 290 Ga. 628, 724 S.E.2d 386 (2012).

Court of appeals erred in ruling that a society of surgery centers did not have to exhaust administrative remedies under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-13-19(a), in the society's action seeking to prevent the Georgia Department of Community Health and the Department's Commissioner from requiring its members to respond to certain disputed requests in an annual survey because the futility exception to the exhaustion requirement was inapplicable; the Commissioner's position in the lawsuit did not establish futility because actions taken to defend a lawsuit could not establish futility. Ga. Dep't of Cmty. Health v. Ga. Soc'y of Ambulatory Surgery Ctrs., 290 Ga. 628, 724 S.E.2d 386 (2012).

Because the Georgia Society of Ambulatory Surgical Centers represented the interests of members that had adequate administrative remedies, and those members had not exhausted those remedies, the trial court was required to dismiss its case alleging that an annual survey the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) issued to ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) sought information beyond the scope of O.C.G.A. § 31-6-70. Furthermore, the procedures set forth in the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-13-19 and O.C.G.A. §§ 31-6-40(c), and31-6-47(a)(18), and Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 111-2-2-.05(2)(e) were available to ASCs before DCH took any final adverse action against them for failing to provide the required survey information, the procedures afforded adequate administrative remedies to aggrieved ASCs. Ga. Soc'y of Ambulatory Surgery Ctrs. v. Ga. Dep't of Cmty. Health, 316 Ga. App. 433, 729 S.E.2d 565 (2012).

Hospital authority may apply for certificate of need outside the hospital's area of operation and without the permission of the affected governing authority or hospital authority board in the planned service area; provided, however, that in order to implement the certificate, permission to pursue the health care activity would be required. 1995 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 95-13.