ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 550
(By Senators Helmick and Ross)
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[Passed March 13, 1999; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend article two-d, chapter sixteen of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
five-a, relating to the conversion of certain hospitals'
acute care beds to nursing beds certified by medicare and
medicaid; providing the criteria for such conversions; and
providing an exception to agency rules and certain statutory
requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two-d, chapter sixteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section five- a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2D. CERTIFICATE OF NEED.
§16-2D-5a. Exception permitting certain nursing beds.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision contained in this article
and any rule issued by the state agency, on and after the first
day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, any
critical access hospital, designated by the state as a critical
access hospital after meeting all federal eligibility criteria,
that was previously a for-profit organization and which has been
certified as a not-for-profit organization within the five years
prior to the first month in which this section becomes effective,
may apply for a certificate of need to add up to twenty-five
licensed distinct part nursing beds for certification by both
medicare and medicaid for reimbursement purposes, if the hospital
meets all federal and state licensing requirements for the
provision of nursing services, and if the nursing beds created
are located in distinct long-term care units in a previously
constructed part of the hospital suitable for that purpose.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary,
and any rule issued by the state agency, any rural hospital that
was formerly owned and operated by the county but now is owned by
a non-profit multi-hospital chain owning two or more rural
hospitals, that is eligible in the rural health plan for, but not
currently designated as, a critical access hospital and currently
have one to twenty-five nursing beds, may apply for a certificate
of need to convert up to sixteen beds of existing licensed acute
care beds to nursing beds for certification by both medicare and medicaid for reimbursement purposes, provided that the following
conditions are met:
(1) There is no overall increase in the bed capacity of the
hospital; one acute care bed is converted to one dually certified
medicare and medicaid nursing bed.
(2) All converted acute care beds shall be permanently
deleted from the acute care bed compliment of the hospital, which
may not thereafter add, by conversation or otherwise, acute care
beds to its bed compliment without satisfying the requirements of
subdivision (4), subsection (b), section three of this article,
for which purposes the addition, whether by conversion or
otherwise, shall be considered a substantial change to the bed
capacity of the hospital notwithstanding the definition of that
term as found in subsection (e), section two of this article.
(3) After the conversion, the hospital shall have no more
than fifty licensed acute care beds.
(4) The hospital shall meet all federal and state licensing
requirements for the provisions of skilled nursing services.
Additionally, all skilled nursing beds created under this
exemption shall be located in distinct long-term care units in a
previously constructed part of the hospital that can be used for
that purpose.
(5) Nothing in this section negatively affects the rights of
inspection and certification which are elsewhere required by federal law or regulations.