Rural emergency hospital licensure; licensing

requirements. A. The authority shall promulgate rules to establish a rural emergency hospital license that enables certain hospitals to apply to receive federal health care reimbursement as rural emergency hospitals. B. The authority shall only issue a rural emergency hospital license to a health facility that: (1) on December 27, 2020, was: (a) designated as a critical access hospital by the centers for medicare and medicaid services; or (b) licensed as a hospital with less than fifty licensed beds and located in a county in a rural area as defined in Section 1886(d)(2)(D) or Section 1886(d)(8)(E) of the federal Social Security Act; (2) provides rural emergency hospital services in the facility twenty-four hours per day and is staffed twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week with a physician, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist or physician assistant; (3) has a transfer agreement in effect with a level 1 or level 2 trauma center; (4) does not have an annual average patient length of stay over twenty-four hours; and (5) meets any other requirements that the authority finds necessary to implement state licensure and satisfy centers for medicare and medicaid services requirements for reimbursement as a rural emergency hospital. C. A health facility that applies to the authority for licensure as a rural emergency hospital shall include with the licensure application: (1) an action plan for initiating rural emergency hospital services, including a detailed transition plan that lists the specific services that the facility will retain, modify, add and discontinue; (2) a description of services that the facility intends to provide on an outpatient basis; and (3) any other information required by rules of the authority. D. A rural emergency hospital shall not have inpatient beds, but a rural emergency hospital may have a unit that is a distinct part of the hospital that is licensed as a skilled nursing facility and provides post-hospital extended care services. E. For the purposes of this section,"rural emergency hospital" means a health facility that provides emergency and observational care and meets the licensure requirements outlined in Subsection B of this section. History: Laws 2023, ch. 109, § 1; § 24-1-5.12, recompiled and amended as § 24A-1- 10 by Laws 2024, ch. 39, § 31.