Section 151-C:2 Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
I. ""Ambulatory surgical facility'' means a health care facility or a portion of a health care facility which provides surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization, and does not include the offices of private physicians or dentists, whether in individual or group practices.
II. ""Applicant'' means a person responding to a request for application for certificate of need.
III. ""Bed capacity'' means the total number of licensed beds in a facility licensed under RSA 151; or in the case of state facilities, it means the total number of beds in service (staffed).
IV. ""Board'' means the health services planning and review board established in RSA 151-C:3.
V. ""Business day'' includes any day, Monday through Friday, except legal holidays.
VI. ""Capital expenditure'' means an expenditure which, under generally accepted accounting principles consistently applied, is not properly chargeable as an expense of operation or maintenance, and includes acquisition by purchase, by transfer, or by lease or comparable arrangement, or through donation, if the expenditure would have been considered a capital expenditure if acquisition had been by purchase.
VII. ""Categories of service'' means health services offered in or through a health care facility which were not offered on a regular basis in or through such health care facility within the 12-month period before the time such services would be offered.
VIII. ""Certificate of need'' means a certificate issued by the state agency approving the offering or development of a proposed new institutional health service.
IX. ""Certificate of need review'' means the review of applications submitted in response to a request for application published by the health services planning and review board.
X. ""Confidential commercial information'' means any information filed either by a hospital or nursing home in an application for certificate of need or data disclosure under RSA 126:25 that contains either a trade secret or other commercial information:
(a) That has not yet been revealed to persons other than (i) employees, agents, or attorneys of the filing party; (ii) other persons or entities with which the filing party is engaging in a joint venture or other commercial action in concert; and (iii) other persons or entities with which the filing party is actively negotiating for the purchase or sale of goods or services; and
(b) That would, if revealed, substantially and adversely affect the ability of the filing party or its affiliated interests to compete with other entities offering or proposing to offer the same goods and services in the same market.
XI. ""Confidential financial information'' means any financial information filed either by a hospital or nursing home in accordance with an application for certificate of need or data disclosure under RSA 126:25:
(a) That has not yet been revealed to persons other than (i) employees, agents, or attorneys of the hospital; (ii) other persons or entities with which the hospital is jointly participating in an effort to obtain financing; and (iii) other persons or entities to which the hospital has applied for financing;
(b) That would, if revealed, substantially, predictably, and adversely affect the ability of the hospital or its affiliated interests to obtain financing on reasonable terms in competition with others seeking similar types of capital; and
(c) That could lawfully be concealed under applicable laws governing financial transactions.
XII. ""Construction'' includes actual commencement of any construction or fabrication of any new building, or addition to any existing facility, or any expenditure of more than the appropriate threshold level, as determined under RSA 151-C:5, II(a) or RSA 151-C:5, II(f), relating to the alteration, remodeling, renovation, modernization, improvement, relocation, repair, or replacement of a health care facility or health maintenance organization, including expenditures necessary for compliance with life and health safety codes.
XIII. ""Consumer of health care'' means a person who is not a provider of health care.
XIV. ""Conversion'' means change of the distribution of existing beds in a health care facility affecting acute care, skilled nursing care, intermediate care, psychiatric care, and substance abuse care as defined in the applicable state or federal law.
XV. ""Days'' means calendar days, unless otherwise specified.
XV-a. ""Health care facility'' means hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, specialty hospitals and licensed nursing homes including all services and property owned by such. Health care facilities shall include facilities which are publicly or privately owned or for-profit or not-for-profit, and which are licensed or required to be licensed in whole or in part by the state.
XVI. ""Health maintenance organization'' means a public or private organization, organized under the laws of any state or the federal government which:
(a) Provides or otherwise makes available to enrolled participants health care services, including at least the following basic health care services: usual physician services, hospitalization, laboratory, x-ray, emergency and preventive services, and out-of-area coverage; and
(b) Is compensated, except for co-payments, for the provision of the basic health care services listed in subparagraph (a) to enrolled participants on a predetermined periodic basis without regard to the date on which health care services are provided; a predetermined periodic basis shall be fixed without regard to the frequency, extent, or kind of health care service actually provided; and
(c) Provides physician services primarily (1) directly through physicians who are either employees or partners of such organization, or (2) through arrangements with individual physicians or one or more groups of physicians organized in a group practice or individual basis, or (3) a combination of (1) and (2), as provided herein.
XVII. [Repealed.]
XVIII. ""Health services'' means clinically related diagnostic, treatment, or rehabilitative services, as well as preventive services, and includes, without limitation, alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health services.
XIX. [Repealed.]
XIX-a. ""Hospice'' means a concept of care to assist dying patients to live their remaining weeks or months as free of symptoms and as much in control as possible. Such care can be provided in the individual's home, in a residential setting outside of the individual's home or in a hospital or long-term care facility.
XIX-b. ""Hospice house'' means a free standing 24-hour residential setting licensed under RSA 151 as a supported residential care facility for terminally ill individuals with less than one year to live who no longer have a home or cannot remain safely there. Palliative care such as room, meals, personal care, medication monitoring and emotional support, is provided. Additional health care services may be provided to residents through arrangements with outside organizations as is currently available if the resident was in his own home.
XX. ""Hospital'' means an institution which is engaged in providing to patients, under supervision of physicians, diagnostic and therapeutic services for medical diagnosis, treatment and care of injured, disabled, or sick persons, or rehabilitation services for the rehabilitation of such persons. The term ""hospital'' includes psychiatric and substance abuse treatment hospitals.
XXI. [Repealed.]
XXI-a. ""Inpatient services'' means all care delivered to patients staying more than 24 hours in a health care facility, including, but not limited to, alcohol and drug dependency, psychiatric services, physical rehabilitation, cardiology services, obstetrical services, and general medical and surgical services.
XXII. ""Institutional health service'' means any proposed project for which a standard must be developed under RSA 151-C:5, II.
XXIII. ""Intermediate care facility'' means an institution which, on a regular basis, provides health-related care and services of a lower level than those provided by a hospital or skilled nursing facility but above the level of room and board.
XXIII-a. ""Location'' means service area.
XXIV. ""Major medical equipment'' means a single unit of medical equipment or a single system of components with related functions which is used to provide medical and other health services and which costs more than $400,000. In determining whether medical equipment costs more than $400,000, the cost of studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, and other activities essential to acquiring the equipment shall be included. If the equipment is acquired for less than fair market value, the term ""cost'' includes the fair market value.
XXV. ""Major new facilities'' means the construction, development, or other establishment of a new health care facility, the total cost of which is in excess of $1,000,000.
XXVI. ""Nursing home or facility'' means a place which shall provide, for 2 or more persons, basic domiciliary services (board, room, and laundry), continuing health supervision under competent professional medical and nursing direction, and continuous nursing care as may be individually required.
XXVII. ""To offer'', when used in connection with health services, means that a health care provider holds itself out as capable of providing, or as having the means for the provision of, specified health services.
XXVII-a. ""Outpatient services'' means all care delivered to patients who are not required as a part of treatment to stay overnight in the hospital.
XXVIII. ""Person'' means an individual, trust, state, partnership, committee, corporation, nonprofit health service corporation, association and other organizations such as joint stock companies and insurance companies, or a political subdivision or instrumentality of a state, including a municipal corporation.
XXIX. ""Physical facility or site'' means the total buildings, structures, and land of a health care facility.
XXX. ""Provider of health care'' means a person:
(a) Who is a direct provider of health care, including a physician, dentist, nurse, podiatrist, optometrist, physician assistant, or ancillary personnel employed under the supervision of a physician, in that the individual's primary current activity is the provision of health care to individuals or the administration of facilities or institutions, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation facilities, alcohol and drug abuse treatment facilities, outpatient facilities, and health maintenance organizations, in which such care is provided and, when required by the laws of this state, who has received professional training in the provision of such care or in such administration and is licensed or certified for such provision or administration;
(b) Who holds a fiduciary position with, or has a fiduciary interest in, any entity described in subparagraph (c)(2) or (c)(4) of this paragraph other than an entity described in either such subparagraph which is also an entity described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and which does not have as its primary purpose the delivery of health care, the conduct of research, the conduct of instruction for health professionals, or the production of drugs or articles described in subparagraph (c)(3) of this paragraph;
(c) Who receives (either directly or through the person's spouse) more than 1/5 of his gross annual income from any one or combination of the following:
(1) Fees or other compensation for research into or instruction in the provision of health care;
(2) Entities engaged in the provision of health care or in research or instruction in the provision of health care;
(3) Producing or supplying drugs or other articles for individuals or entities for use in the provision of or in research into or instruction in the provision of health care; or
(4) Entities engaged in producing drugs or such other articles;
(d) Who is the member of the immediate family of an individual described in subparagraph (a), (b), or (c); or
(e) Who is engaged in issuing any policy or contract of individual or group health insurance, hospital, or medical service benefits. An individual shall not be considered a provider of health care solely because the individual is a member of the governing board of an entity described in subparagraph (c)(2) or (c)(4).
XXXI. ""Psychiatric hospital'' means an institution which is primarily engaged in providing to inpatients, by or under the supervision of a physician, psychiatric services for the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of mentally ill and emotionally disturbed persons.
XXXII. [Repealed.]
XXXIII. ""Rehabilitation facility'' means an inpatient facility which is operated for the primary purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of disabled persons through an integrated program of medical and other services which are provided under competent professional supervision.
XXXIV. ""Request for application'' means a formal publication of need for a specific service based on an existing standard, revised standard, or new standard as developed pursuant to RSA 151-C:5 and 6.
XXXV. ""Skilled nursing facility'' means an institution or a distinct part of an institution which is primarily engaged in providing to injured, disabled, or sick inpatients skilled nursing care, and rehabilitative and related services.
XXXVI. ""Standard'' means a health policy guideline developed by the health services planning and review board and instituted under the provisions of RSA 541-A.
Source. 1985, 378:6. 1988, 275:1-7, 23. 1991, 333:1, 2. 1992, 35:1. 1995, 190:6. 1999, 330:4, eff. July 16, 1999.