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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1395
January Session, 2025
LCO No. 5304
Referred to Committee on PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduced by:
(PH)
AN ACT ESTABLISHING LICENSURE FOR LONG -TERM ACUTE
CARE HOSPITALS AND REQUIRING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC
HEALTH TO STUDY THE DESIGNATION OF LONG -TERM CARE
FACILITIES AND CHRONIC DISEASE HOSPITALS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 19a-490 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2025): 2
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 3
(a) "Institution" means a hospital, short-term hospital special hospice, 4
hospice inpatient facility, residential care home, nursing home facility, 5
home health care agency, home health aide agency, behavioral health 6
facility, assisted living services agency, substance abuse treatment 7
facility, outpatient surgical facility, outpatient clinic, clinical laboratory, 8
blood collection facility, source plasma donation center, birth center, 9
long-term acute care hospital, an infirmary operated by an educational 10
institution for the care of students enrolled in, and faculty and 11
employees of, such institution; a facility engaged in providing services 12
for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or care of human health 13 Raised Bill No. 1395
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conditions, including facilities operated and maintained by any state 14
agency; and a residential facility for persons with intellectual disability 15
licensed pursuant to section 17a-227 and certified to participate in the 16
Title XIX Medicaid program as an intermediate care facility for 17
individuals with intellectual disability. "Institution" does not include 18
any facility for the care and treatment of persons with mental illness or 19
substance use disorder operated or maintained by any state agency, 20
except Whiting Forensic Hospital and the hospital and psychiatric 21
residential treatment facility units of the Albert J. Solnit Children's 22
Center; 23
(b) "Hospital" means an establishment for the lodging, care and 24
treatment of persons suffering from disease or other abnormal physical 25
or mental conditions and includes inpatient psychiatric services in 26
general hospitals; 27
(c) "Residential care home" or "rest home" means a community 28
residence that furnishes, in single or multiple facilities, food and shelter 29
to two or more persons unrelated to the proprietor and, in addition, 30
provides services that meet a need beyond the basic provisions of food, 31
shelter and laundry and may qualify as a setting that allows residents to 32
receive home and community-based services funded by state and 33
federal programs; 34
(d) "Home health care agency" means a public or private 35
organization, or a subdivision thereof, engaged in providing 36
professional nursing services and the following services, available 37
twenty-four hours per day, in the patient's home or a substantially 38
equivalent environment: Home health aide services as defined in this 39
section, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy or 40
medical social services. The agency shall provide professional nursing 41
services and at least one additional service directly and all others 42
directly or through contract. An agency shall be available to enroll new 43
patients seven days a week, twenty-four hours per day; 44
(e) "Home health aide agency" means a public or private 45 Raised Bill No. 1395
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organization, except a home health care agency, which provides in the 46
patient's home or a substantially equivalent environment supportive 47
services which may include, but are not limited to, assistance with 48
personal hygiene, dressing, feeding and incidental household tasks 49
essential to achieving adequate household and family management. 50
Such supportive services shall be provided under the supervision of a 51
registered nurse and, if such nurse determines appropriate, shall be 52
provided by a social worker, physical therapist, speech therapist or 53
occupational therapist. Such supervision may be provided directly or 54
through contract; 55
(f) "Home health aide services" as defined in this section shall not 56
include services provided to assist individuals with activities of daily 57
living when such individuals have a disease or condition that is chronic 58
and stable as determined by a physician licensed in the state; 59
(g) "Behavioral health facility" means any facility that provides 60
mental health services to persons eighteen years of age or older or 61
substance use disorder services to persons of any age in an outpatient 62
treatment or residential setting to ameliorate mental, emotional, 63
behavioral or substance use disorder issues; 64
(h) "Clinical laboratory" means any facility or other area used for 65
microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, 66
immunohematological, biophysical, cytological, pathological or other 67
examinations of human body fluids, secretions, excretions or excised or 68
exfoliated tissues for the purpose of providing information for the (1) 69
diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any human disease or 70
impairment, (2) assessment of human health, or (3) assessment of the 71
presence of drugs, poisons or other toxicological substances; 72
(i) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, 73
limited liability company or association; 74
(j) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Public Health or the 75
commissioner's designee; 76 Raised Bill No. 1395
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(k) "Home health agency" means an agency licensed as a home health 77
care agency or a home health aide agency; 78
(l) "Assisted living services agency" means an agency that provides 79
chronic and stable individuals with services that include, but need not 80
be limited to, nursing services and assistance with activities of daily 81
living and may have a dementia special care unit or program as defined 82
in section 19a-562; 83
(m) "Outpatient clinic" means an organization operated by a 84
municipality or a corporation, other than a hospital, that provides (1) 85
ambulatory medical care, including preventive and health promotion 86
services, (2) dental care, or (3) mental health services in conjunction with 87
medical or dental care for the purpose of diagnosing or treating a health 88
condition that does not require the patient's overnight care; 89
(n) "Multicare institution" means a hospital that provides outpatient 90
behavioral health services or other health care services, psychiatric 91
outpatient clinic for adults, free-standing facility for the care or 92
treatment of substance abusive or dependent persons, hospital for 93
psychiatric disabilities, as defined in section 17a-495, or a general acute 94
care hospital that provides outpatient behavioral health services that (1) 95
is licensed in accordance with this chapter, (2) has more than one facility 96
or one or more satellite units owned and operated by a single licensee, 97
and (3) offers complex patient health care services at each facility or 98
satellite unit. For purposes of this subsection, "satellite unit" means a 99
location where a segregated unit of services is provided by the multicare 100
institution; 101
(o) "Nursing home" or "nursing home facility" means (1) any chronic 102
and convalescent nursing home or any rest home with nursing 103
supervision that provides nursing supervision under a medical director 104
twenty-four hours per day, or (2) any chronic and convalescent nursing 105
home that provides skilled nursing care under medical supervision and 106
direction to carry out nonsurgical treatment and dietary procedures for 107
chronic diseases, convalescent stages, acute diseases or injuries; 108 Raised Bill No. 1395
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(p) "Outpatient dialysis unit" means (1) an out-of-hospital out-patient 109
dialysis unit that is licensed by the department to provide (A) services 110
on an out-patient basis to persons requiring dialysis on a short-term 111
basis or for a chronic condition, or (B) training for home dialysis, or (2) 112
an in-hospital dialysis unit that is a special unit of a licensed hospital 113
designed, equipped and staffed to (A) offer dialysis therapy on an out-114
patient basis, (B) provide training for home dialysis, and (C) perform 115
renal transplantations; 116
(q) "Hospice agency" means a public or private organization that 117
provides home care and hospice services to terminally ill patients; 118
(r) "Psychiatric residential treatment facility" means a nonhospital 119
facility with a provider agreement with the Department of Social 120
Services to provide inpatient services to Medicaid-eligible individuals 121
under the age of twenty-one; 122
(s) "Chronic disease hospital" means a long-term hospital having 123
facilities, medical staff and all necessary personnel for the diagnosis, 124
care and treatment of chronic diseases; 125
(t) "Blood collection facility" means a facility that performs blood 126
component collection activities where blood is removed from a human 127
being for the purpose of administering such blood or any of its 128
components to any human being. "Blood collection facility" does not 129
include a facility that performs blood component collection activities to 130
collect source plasma or perform testing that would require licensure as 131
a clinical laboratory. For the purposes of this subsection, "source 132
plasma" means the liquid portion of human blood collected by 133
plasmapheresis and intended as source material for further 134
manufacturing use and does not include single donor plasma products 135
intended for intravenous use, and "plasmapheresis" means a procedure 136
in which blood is removed from a blood donor, the plasma is separated 137
from the formed elements and at least the red blood cells are returned 138
to the blood donor at the time of the donation; 139
(u) "Source plasma donation center" means a facility where source 140 Raised Bill No. 1395
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plasma is collected by plasmapheresis. For the purposes of this 141
subsection, "source plasma" means the liquid portion of human blood 142
collected by plasmapheresis and intended as source material for further 143
manufacturing use and does not include single donor plasma products 144
intended for intravenous use, and "plasmapheresis" means a procedure 145
in which blood is removed from a blood donor, the plasma is separated 146
from the formed elements and at least the red blood cells are returned 147
to the blood donor at the time of the donation; [and] 148
(v) "Birth center" means a freestanding facility that is licensed by the 149
department (1) to provide perinatal, labor, delivery and postpartum 150
care during and immediately after delivery to persons presenting with 151
a low-risk pregnancy and healthy newborns for a period typically less 152
than twenty-four hours, and (2) that is not a hospital licensed pursuant 153
to the provisions of this chapter, or attached to or located in such a 154
hospital. For the purposes of this subsection, "low-risk pregnancy" 155
means an uncomplicated, singleton pregnancy that has vertex 156
presentation and is at low risk for developing complications during 157
labor and birth, as determined by an evaluation and examination 158
conducted by a licensed health care provider acting within the scope of 159
such provider's practice; and 160
(w) "Long-term acute care hospital" means a hospital that is a long-161
term care hospital, as defined in 42 USC 1395x, as amended from time 162
to time. 163
Sec. 2. (Effective from passage) The Commissioner of Public Health shall 164
conduct a study of the regulatory framework of long-term acute care 165
hospitals, including, but not limited to, (1) any regulatory burdens, such 166
as duplicative employee fingerprinting requirements, (2) the 167
appropriateness of current oversight mechanisms, and (3) any 168
regulatory inconsistencies and their impact on the ability of such 169
hospitals to deliver timely and effective care. Not later than January 1, 170
2026, the commissioner shall submit a report, in accordance with the 171
provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes, on the results of the 172
study and any recommendations for legislative action as a result of such 173 Raised Bill No. 1395
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study to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having 174
cognizance of matters relating to public health. 175
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2025 19a-490
Sec. 2 from passage New section
PH Joint Favorable