2011 Vermont Code
Title 18 Health
Chapter 221 HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION
§ 9445 Enforcement

§ 9445. Enforcement

(a) Any person who offers or develops any new health care project within the meaning of this subchapter without first obtaining a certificate of need as required herein, or who otherwise violates any of the provisions of this subchapter, may be subject to the following administrative sanctions by the commissioner, after notice and an opportunity to be heard:

(1) The commissioner may order that no license or certificate permitted to be issued by the department or any other state agency may be issued to any health care facility to operate, offer, or develop any new health care project for a specified period of time, or that remedial conditions be attached to the issuance of such licenses or certificates.

(2) The commissioner may order that payments or reimbursements to the entity for claims made under any health insurance policy, subscriber contract, or health benefit plan offered or administered by any public or private health insurer, including the Medicaid program and any other health benefit program administered by the state be denied, reduced, or limited, and in the case of a hospital that the hospital's annual budget approved under subchapter 7 of this chapter be adjusted, modified, or reduced.

(b) In addition to all other sanctions, if any person offers or develops any new health care project without first having been issued a certificate of need or certificate of exemption therefore, or violates any other provision of this subchapter or any lawful rule or regulation promulgated thereunder, the commissioner and health care providers or consumers located in the state shall have standing to maintain a civil action in the superior court of the county wherein such alleged violation has occurred, or wherein such person may be found, to enjoin, restrain, or prevent such violation. Upon written request by the commissioner, it shall be the duty of the attorney general of the state to furnish appropriate legal services and to prosecute an action for injunctive relief to an appropriate conclusion, which shall not be reimbursed under subdivision (2) of this subsection.

(c) After notice and an opportunity for hearing, the commissioner may impose on a person who knowingly violates a provision of this subchapter, or a rule or order adopted pursuant to this subchapter or 8 V.S.A. { 15, a civil administrative penalty of no more than $40,000.00, or in the case of a continuing violation, a civil administrative penalty of no more than $100,000.00 or one-tenth of one percent of the gross annual revenues of the health care facility, whichever is greater, which shall not be reimbursed under subdivision (a)(2) of this section, and the commissioner may order the entity to cease and desist from further violations, and to take such other actions necessary to remediate a violation. A person aggrieved by a decision of the commissioner under this subdivision may appeal the commissioner's decision to the supreme court.

(d) The commissioner shall adopt by rule criteria for assessing the circumstances in which a violation of a provision of this subchapter, a rule adopted pursuant to this subchapter, or the terms or conditions of a certificate of need require that a penalty under this section shall be imposed, and criteria for assessing the circumstances in which a penalty under this section may be imposed. (Added 1979, No. 65, { 1; amended 1991, No. 160 (Adj. Sess.), { 36, eff. May 11, 1992; 1995, No. 180 (Adj. Sess.), { 38(a); 2003, No. 53, { 19; 2007, No. 139 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 5c, 7.)