Requirement for license — Governmental institutions exempted. [Effective until December 1, 2027. See the versions effective on December 1, 2027, July 1, 2028, December 1, 2029, and July 1, 2030.]

Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-11-204, under Regulation of Health and Related Facilities.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-11-204

(a) (1) A person, partnership, association, or corporation, this state, a county or local government unit, and any division, department, board, or agency of a government unit, shall not establish, conduct, operate, or maintain the following in this state without a license:(A) A hospital;(B) A recuperation center;(C) A nursing home;(D) A home for the aged;(E) A residential HIV supportive living facility;(F) An assisted-care living facility;(G) A home care organization;(H) A residential hospice;(I) A birthing center;(J) A prescribed child care center;(K) A renal dialysis clinic;(L) An outpatient diagnostic center;(M) An ambulatory surgical treatment center;(N) An adult care home;(O) A traumatic brain injury residential home;(P) A burn unit;(Q) A neonatal intensive care unit;(R) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), magnetic resonance imaging; or(S) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), positron emission tomography.(2) State or local government home care organizations may be excluded by the board.(3) An independent living facility is exempt from the licensure requirements of this part.(4) Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography that are not used for diagnostic purposes do not require a license under this part.

(1) A person, partnership, association, or corporation, this state, a county or local government unit, and any division, department, board, or agency of a government unit, shall not establish, conduct, operate, or maintain the following in this state without a license:(A) A hospital;(B) A recuperation center;(C) A nursing home;(D) A home for the aged;(E) A residential HIV supportive living facility;(F) An assisted-care living facility;(G) A home care organization;(H) A residential hospice;(I) A birthing center;(J) A prescribed child care center;(K) A renal dialysis clinic;(L) An outpatient diagnostic center;(M) An ambulatory surgical treatment center;(N) An adult care home;(O) A traumatic brain injury residential home;(P) A burn unit;(Q) A neonatal intensive care unit;(R) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), magnetic resonance imaging; or(S) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), positron emission tomography.

(A) A hospital;

(B) A recuperation center;

(C) A nursing home;

(D) A home for the aged;

(E) A residential HIV supportive living facility;

(F) An assisted-care living facility;

(G) A home care organization;

(H) A residential hospice;

(I) A birthing center;

(J) A prescribed child care center;

(K) A renal dialysis clinic;

(L) An outpatient diagnostic center;

(M) An ambulatory surgical treatment center;

(N) An adult care home;

(O) A traumatic brain injury residential home;

(P) A burn unit;

(Q) A neonatal intensive care unit;

(R) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), magnetic resonance imaging; or

(S) Except as provided in subdivision (a)(4), positron emission tomography.

(2) State or local government home care organizations may be excluded by the board.

(3) An independent living facility is exempt from the licensure requirements of this part.

(4) Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography that are not used for diagnostic purposes do not require a license under this part.

(b) Any health care facility or local health department operated by the federal government shall be exempt from this part.

(c) The commission, in its discretion, is authorized to issue licenses to several licensees in such form as it may deem necessary to distinguish between and identify any of the facilities required to be licensed by the commission.

(d) Nothing in this part requires a person or entity providing hospice residential services as of July 1, 1992, to obtain a certificate of need as a residential hospice, if such person or entity, prior to July 1, 1992, had qualified for reimbursement as a hospice under the federal medicare program.