07 LC
36 0481
House
Bill 249
By:
Representatives Stephens of the
164th,
Channell of the
116th,
Butler of the
18th,
and Jackson of the
161st
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Code Section 31-6-47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to exemptions from state health planning and development provisions, so as to
provide findings of the General Assembly; to provide an exemption for the
development and offering of new institutional health services by acute cancer
hospitals with 50 or fewer beds that specialize in advanced cancer treatment and
that have a majority of their patients originating from outside the State of
Georgia; to require the provision of a certain amount of uncompensated indigent
care for the exemption to be applicable; to provide a definition of a certain
term; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other
purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
The
General Assembly finds that the purpose of cancer treatment hospitals is to
permit focused allocation of resources to one particular specialty that would
serve a national or even global population. By promoting acute care cancer
treatment centers as described in this Act, the State of Georgia can be promoted
as a source of globally recognized advanced health care services, which promotes
economic development in the State of Georgia in general and enhances the
reputation of all health care providers in the State of Georgia.
SECTION
2.
Code
Section 31-6-47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
exemptions from state health planning and development provisions, is revised in
subsection (a) by deleting "and" at the end of paragraph (15), replacing the
period at the end of paragraph (16) with "; and", and adding a new paragraph to
read as follows:
"(17)
New institutional health services and capital expenditures related thereto
provided by or on behalf of nonphysician owned acute care cancer treatment
hospitals that have a capacity of 50 or fewer beds and at least 65 percent of
their annual patient base consists of residents of states other than Georgia.
In order for this exemption to be applicable, the acute care cancer treatment
hospital shall provide uncompensated indigent care which meets or exceeds 3
percent of annual gross revenues of the hospital. As used in this paragraph,
'acute care cancer treatment hospital' means an institution which is primarily
engaged in providing to inpatients and outpatients, by or under the supervision
of physicians, diagnostic services and therapeutic services for medical
diagnosis, treatment, and care of cancer or rehabilitation services for the
rehabilitation from cancer. The term 'uncompensated indigent care' shall have
the same meaning as in paragraph (6) of subsection (a) of Code Section
31-6-40.2."
SECTION
3.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.