2015 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 19a - Public Health and Well-Being
Chapter 368z - Office of Health Care Access
Section 19a-617b - Demonstration project for long-term acute care hospitals or satellite facilities. Waiver of licensure requirements. Certificate of need. Report.

(a) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Chronic disease hospital” means a nonprofit facility licensed as a chronic disease hospital by the Department of Public Health on or before January 1, 2003; and

(2) “Satellite facility” means a long-term acute care facility operated as part of a long-term acute care hospital under the provisions of Title XVIII of the Social Security Act.

(b) The Office of Health Care Access, in consultation with the Departments of Public Health and Social Services, may authorize up to four demonstration projects allowing chronic disease hospitals to establish and operate new long-term acute care hospitals or satellite facilities. The purpose of such demonstration projects is to study the quality of service, patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness resulting from the use of such hospitals or facilities. Such hospitals or facilities operated pursuant to such demonstration projects shall serve patients who require long-term hospitalization in an acute care setting, need twenty-four-hour on-site physician availability and are not suitable for placement in a skilled nursing facility. New long-term acute care hospitals and satellite facilities may be eligible for operation as such projects if they are (1) located within a licensed short-term acute care general or children’s hospital, (2) under the common ownership and control of a chronic disease hospital, and (3) currently are, or become certified for, Medicare participation as a long-term acute care hospital under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act.

(c) In connection with the demonstration projects authorized under this section, the Commissioner of Public Health may, in the commissioner’s discretion, waive licensure and other regulatory requirements otherwise applicable to chronic disease hospitals for new long-term acute care hospitals or satellite facilities. It shall not be necessary for the Department of Public Health to adopt or amend regulations for purposes of the demonstration projects authorized by this section.

(d) Not later than January 1, 2005, a chronic disease hospital may apply to the office for a certificate of need to conduct a demonstration project. Each demonstration project authorized by the office pursuant to this section shall collect and report on data concerning the demonstration project’s impact on the quality of service and patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Such data shall be reported in the manner prescribed by said commissioner, and shall include (1) length of stay, (2) number of intensive care days per patient, (3) cost of stay, (4) type of discharge, and (5) any other data requested by the Commissioner of Health Care Access.

(e) Not later than January 1, 2007, the Office of Health Care Access, in consultation with the Departments of Public Health and Social Services, shall report, in accordance with section 11-4a, to the joint standing committees of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to public health and human services concerning findings and recommendations regarding the demonstration projects authorized pursuant to this section.

(P.A. 03-275, S. 1.)