(A) The director of health shall accept for review certificate of need applications as provided in sections 3702.592, 3702.593, and 3702.594 of the Revised Code.

(B)

(1) The director shall not approve an application for a certificate of need for the addition of long-term care beds to an existing long-term care facility or for the development of a new long-term care facility if any of the following apply:

(a) The existing long-term care facility in which the beds are being placed has one or more waivers for life safety code deficiencies, one or more state fire code violations, or one or more state building code violations, and the project identified in the application does not propose to correct all life safety code deficiencies for which a waiver has been granted, all state fire code violations, and all state building code violations at the existing long-term care facility in which the beds are being placed;

(b) During the sixty-month period preceding the filing of the application, a notice of proposed license revocation was issued under section 3721.03 of the Revised Code for the existing long-term care facility in which the beds are being placed or a nursing home owned or operated by the applicant or a principal participant, unless in the case of such a nursing home the notice was issued solely because the nursing home had already closed or ceased operations.

(c) During the period that precedes the filing of the application and is encompassed by the three most recent standard surveys of the existing long-term care facility in which the beds are being placed, any of the following occurred:

(i) The facility was cited on three or more separate occasions for final, nonappealable actual harm but not immediate jeopardy deficiencies.

(ii) The facility was cited on two or more separate occasions for final, nonappealable immediate jeopardy deficiencies.

(iii) The facility was cited on two separate occasions for final, nonappealable actual harm but not immediate jeopardy deficiencies and on one occasion for a final, nonappealable immediate jeopardy deficiency.

(d) More than two nursing homes owned or operated in this state by the applicant or a principal participant or, if the applicant or a principal participant owns or operates more than twenty nursing homes in this state, more than ten per cent of those nursing homes, were each cited during the period that precedes the filing of the application for the certificate of need and is encompassed by the three most recent standard surveys of the nursing homes that were so cited in any of the following manners:

(i) On three or more separate occasions for final, nonappealable actual harm but not immediate jeopardy deficiencies;

(ii) On two or more separate occasions for final, nonappealable immediate jeopardy deficiencies;

(iii) On two separate occasions for final, nonappealable actual harm but not immediate jeopardy deficiencies and on one occasion for a final, nonappealable immediate jeopardy deficiency.

(2) In applying divisions (B)(1)(a) to (d) of this section, the director shall not consider deficiencies or violations cited before the applicant or a principal participant acquired or began to own or operate the long-term care facility at which the deficiencies or violations were cited. The director may disregard deficiencies and violations cited after the long-term care facility was acquired or began to be operated by the applicant or a principal participant if the deficiencies or violations were attributable to circumstances that arose under the previous owner or operator and the applicant or principal participant has implemented measures to alleviate the circumstances. In the case of an application proposing development of a new long-term care facility by relocation of beds, the director shall not consider deficiencies or violations that were solely attributable to the physical plant of the existing long-term care facility from which the beds are being relocated.

(C) The director also shall accept for review any application for the conversion of infirmary beds to long-term care beds if the infirmary meets all of the following conditions:

(1) Is operated exclusively by a religious order;

(2) Provides care exclusively to members of religious orders who take vows of celibacy and live by virtue of their vows within the orders as if related;

(3) Was providing care exclusively to members of such a religious order on January 1, 1994.

(D) Notwithstanding division (C)(2) of this section, a facility that has been granted a certificate of need under division (C) of this section may provide care to any of the following family members of the individuals described in division (C)(2) of this section: mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, or children. Such a facility may also provide care to any individual who has been designated an associate member by the religious order that operates the facility.

The long-term care beds in a facility that have been granted a certificate of need under division (C) of this section may not be relocated pursuant to sections 3702.592 to 3702.594 of the Revised Code.

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 340, §101.01, eff. 12/22/2015.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 483, §101.01, eff. 9/15/2014.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.127, HB 487, §101.01, eff. 9/10/2012.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.28, HB 153, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2011.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.33, HB 398, §1, eff. 8/31/2010.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.9, HB 1, §101.01, eff. 10/16/2009.

Effective Date: 2007 HB119 06-30-2007