Bill Summaries: H660 (2021)

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  • Summary date: Apr 22 2021 - View summary

    Amends GS 131E-­175 to add a new legislative finding concerning the demand for ocular surgical procedures.

    Amends GS 131E­-176 to define ocular surgical procedure and ocular surgical procedure room.

    Amends GS 131E-­178 to exempt licensed opthalmologists who provide ocular surgical procedures in one or more ocular surgical procedure rooms from obtaining certificates of need to license that setting as an ambulatory surgical facility with the existing number of ocular surgical procedure rooms, so long as (1) the license application is postmarked by December 31, 2021, (2) the applicant verifies within 60 days of the effective date of this subsection that the facility was in operation as of the effective date of this subsection or that the completed application for the building permit was submitted by the effective date of this subsection, (3) the facility has been accredited by specified organizations by the time the license application is postmarked, and (4) the license application includes a commitment to and a plan for serving indigent and medically underserved populations. Requires all other persons proposing to obtain a license to establish an ambulatory surgical facility for ocular surgical procedures to obtain a certificate of need. Also amends the statute's provisions exempting a person providing gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures in specified settings from needing a certificate of need license by modifying the allowable accrediting entities. Makes additional clarifying and technical changes.

    Further amends the defined terms set forth in GS 131E-176 as follows. Eliminates psychiatric facilities, kidney disease treatment centers and chemical dependency treatment facilities from the term health care service facility, and repeals those defined terms, their related terms, and their references from the statute. 

    Enacts a new exemption, subdivision (a)(10), to GS 131E-184 from certificate of need review. Subject to written notice to the Department of Health and Human Services, exempts from certificate of need review a new institutional health service for which an entity proposes to develop, acquire, construct, expand, or replace a health service facility or service that obtained a certificate of need approval prior to October 1, 2021, for (1) a chemical dependency treatment center, as defined, which can be a unit of a general hospital, unit of a psychiatric hospital, or a freestanding specialty facility, as described; (2) a kidney disease treatment center, as defined; and (3) a psychiatric facility, as defined.

    Effective October 1, 2021.