135.64 - CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS.
135.64 CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS.
1. In determining whether a certificate of need shall be issued,
the department and council shall consider the following:
a. The contribution of the proposed institutional health
service in meeting the needs of the medically underserved, including
persons in rural areas, low-income persons, racial and ethnic
minorities, persons with disabilities, and the elderly, as well as
the extent to which medically underserved residents in the
applicant's service area are likely to have access to the proposed
institutional health service.
b. The relationship of the proposed institutional health
services to the long-range development plan, if any, of the person
providing or proposing the services.
c. The need of the population served or to be served by the
proposed institutional health services for those services.
d. The distance, convenience, cost of transportation, and
accessibility to health services for persons who live outside
metropolitan areas.
e. The availability of alternative, less costly, or more
effective methods of providing the proposed institutional health
services.
f. The immediate and long-term financial feasibility of the
proposal presented in the application, as well as the probable impact
of the proposal on the costs of and charges for providing health
services by the person proposing the new institutional health
service.
g. The relationship of the proposed institutional health
services to the existing health care system of the area in which
those services are proposed to be provided.
h. The appropriate and efficient use or prospective use of
the proposed institutional health service, and of any existing
similar services, including but not limited to a consideration of the
capacity of the sponsor's facility to provide the proposed service,
and possible sharing or cooperative arrangements among existing
facilities and providers.
i. The availability of resources, including, but not limited
to, health care providers, management personnel, and funds for
capital and operating needs, to provide the proposed institutional
health services and the possible alternative uses of those resources
to provide other health services.
j. The appropriate and nondiscriminatory utilization of
existing and available health care providers. Where both allopathic
and osteopathic institutional health services exist, each application
shall be considered in light of the availability and utilization of
both allopathic and osteopathic facilities and services in order to
protect the freedom of choice of consumers and health care providers.
k. The relationship, including the organizational
relationship, of the proposed institutional health services to
ancillary or support services.
l. Special needs and circumstances of those entities which
provide a substantial portion of their services or resources, or
both, to individuals not residing in the immediate geographic area in
which the entities are located, which entities may include but are
not limited to medical and other health professional schools,
multidisciplinary clinics, and specialty centers.
m. The special needs and circumstances of health maintenance
organizations.
n. The special needs and circumstances of biomedical and
behavioral research projects designed to meet a national need and for
which local conditions offer special advantages.
o. The impact of relocation of an institutional health
facility or health maintenance organization on other institutional
health facilities or health maintenance organizations and on the
needs of the population to be served, or which was previously served,
or both.
p. In the case of a construction project, the costs and
methods of the proposed construction and the probable impact of the
proposed construction project on total health care costs.
q. In the case of a proposal for the addition of beds to a
health care facility, the consistency of the proposed addition with
the plans of other agencies of this state responsible for provision
and financing of long-term care services, including home health
services.
r. The recommendations of staff personnel of the department
assigned to the area of certificate of need, concerning the
application, if requested by the council.
2. In addition to the findings required with respect to any of
the criteria listed in subsection 1 of this section, the council
shall grant a certificate of need for a new institutional health
service or changed institutional health service only if it finds in
writing, on the basis of data submitted to it by the department,
that:
a. Less costly, more efficient, or more appropriate
alternatives to the proposed institutional health service are not
available and the development of such alternatives is not
practicable;
b. Any existing facilities providing institutional health
services similar to those proposed are being used in an appropriate
and efficient manner;
c. In the case of new construction, alternatives including
but not limited to modernization or sharing arrangements have been
considered and have been implemented to the maximum extent
practicable;
d. Patients will experience serious problems in obtaining
care of the type which will be furnished by the proposed new
institutional health service or changed institutional health service,
in the absence of that proposed new service.
3. In the evaluation of applications for certificates of need
submitted by university hospital at Iowa City, the unique features of
that institution relating to statewide tertiary health care, health
science education, and clinical research shall be given due
consideration. Further, in administering this division, the unique
capacity of university hospitals for the evaluation of
technologically innovative equipment and other new health services
shall be utilized. Section History: Early Form
[C79, 81, § 135.64] Section History: Recent Form
91 Acts, ch 225, § 5; 92 Acts, ch 1043, § 2; 96 Acts, ch 1129, §
113; 2002 Acts, ch 1120, §11
Referred to in § 135.65, 135.66, 135.72