Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/09/10/2015-22856/medicare-program-approval-of-request-for-an-exception-to-the-prohibition-on-expansion-of-facility
Timestamp: 2019-10-18 18:36:53
Document Index: 641247963

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2009411', '§\u2009411', '§\u2009411', '§\u2009411', '§\u2009411', '§\u2009411']

A Notice by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on 09/10/2015
80 FR 54565
CMS-1642-FN
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2015-22856 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2015-22856
This final notice announces our decision to approve the request from Harsha Behavioral Center, Incorporation (HBC) for an exception to the prohibition against expansion of facility capacity.
On November 30, 2011, we published a final rule in the Federal Register (76 FR 74122, 74517 through 74525) that, among other things, finalized § 411.362(c), which specifies the process for submitting, commenting on, and reviewing a request for an exception to the prohibition on expansion of facility capacity. We published a subsequent final rule in the Federal Register on November 10, 2014 (79 FR 66770, 66987 through 66997) that made certain revisions to the expansion exception process. Because the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formally accepted this request prior to the effective date of that rule, CMS is reviewing and processing the request in accordance with the regulations that were published on November 30, 2011 and which were in effect at the time of submission.
In the November 30, 2011 final rule, we specified that prior to our review of the request, we will solicit community input on the request by publishing a notice of the request in the Federal Register (§ 411.362(c)(5)). We also stated that individuals and entities in the hospital's community have 30 days to submit comments on the request. If we receive timely comments from the community, we will notify the hospital, and the hospital has 30 days after such notice to submit a rebuttal statement (§ 411.362(c)(5)(ii)). Section 411.362(c)(5) also specfies that a request for an exception to the facility expansion prohibition is considered complete if no comments from the community are received by the close of the 30-day comment period. If we receive timely comments from the community, we consider the request to be complete 30 days after the hospital is notified of the comments.
If we grant the request for an exception to the prohibition against expansion of facility capacity, the expansion may occur only in facilities on the hospital's main campus and may not result in the number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds for which the hospital is licensed to exceed 200 percent of the hospital's baseline number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds (§ 411.362(c)(6)).
On June 19, 2015, we published a notice in the Federal Register (80 FR 35363) entitled “Request for an Exception to the Prohibition on Expansion of Facility Capacity under the Hospital Ownership and Rural Provider Exceptions to the Physician Self-Referral Prohibition.” In the June 19, 2015 notice, we stated that as permitted by section 1877(i)(3) of the Act and our regulations at § 411.362(c), the following physician-owned hospital requested an exception to the prohibition on expansion of facility capacity:
Name of Facility: Harsha Behavioral Center, Inc. (HBC).
In the June 19, 2015 notice, we also solicited comments from individuals and entities in the community in which HBC is located. We received no comments during the 30-day public comment period. Accordingly, CMS deemed the request complete on July 20, 2015, the end date of the public comment period.
This final notice announces our decision to approve HBC's request for Start Printed Page 54566an exception to the prohibition against expansion of facility capacity. As required by the November 30, 2011final rule and our public guidance documents, HBC submitted the data and certifications necessary to demonstrate that it satisfies the criteria to qualify as a high Medicaid facility. In accordance with section 1877(i)(3) of the Act, we have granted HBC's request for an exception to the expansion of facility capacity prohibition based on the following criteria:
HBC is not the sole hospital in Vigo, Indiana, the county in which it is located;
HBC certified that it does not discriminate against beneficiaries of Federal health care programs and does not permit physicians practicing at the hospital to discriminate against such beneficiaries; and
With respect to each of the 3 most recent fiscal years for which data were available as of the date HBC submitted its request, it has an annual percentage of total inpatient admissions under Medicaid that is estimated to be greater than such percentage with respect to such admissions for any other hospital located in Vigo County, Indiana, the county in which it is located.
Our approval grants HBC's request to add a total of 44 beds. Pursuant to § 411.362(c)(6), the expansion may occur only in facilities on the hospital's main campus and may not result in the number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds for which HBC is licensed to exceed 200 percent of its baseline number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds. HBC certified that its baseline number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds is 44. Accordingly, we find that granting an additional 44 beds will not exceed the limitation on a permitted expansion.
[FR Doc. 2015-22856 Filed 9-9-15; 8:45 am]