[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 368

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Senators MATHEUSSEN and LYNCH

An Act concerning subacute care units in health care facilities and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the public interest for the State to facilitate the development of an effective and efficient spectrum of quality health care services; and that the conversion of existing hospital bed capacity to a less intensive and more appropriate level of care for post-acute care patients in order to create subacute care units will ensure an optimal quality of care, promote continuity of care and avoid the duplication of existing health care facility bed capacity through costly new construction.

    2. As used in this act:

    "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Health.

    "Health care facility" means a hospital or a skilled nursing home licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.).

    "Hospital" means an acute care general hospital or a comprehensive rehabilitation hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.).

    "Subacute care" means a comprehensive in-patient program for patients who have had an acute illness, injury or exacerbation of a disease process, have a determined course of treatment prescribed, and do not require intensive diagnostic or intensive invasive procedures, but the patient's condition requires physician direction, intensive nursing care, frequent recurrent patient assessment and review of the clinical course and treatment plan for a period of time, significant use of ancillary medical services and an interdisciplinary approach using professional teams of physicians, nurses and other relevant professional disciplines to deliver complex clinical interventions.

    "Subacute care unit" means a unit located within a health care facility which provides subacute care for patients.

    3. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-7) to the contrary, a hospital which proposes to utilize a portion of its licensed bed capacity for the purpose of establishing a subacute care unit is exempted from the requirement of obtaining a certificate of need, subject to the following requirements:

    (1) the unit shall comply with all State regulations governing its operations, and shall be subject to the physical requirements for skilled nursing beds under the federal Medicare program established pursuant to Pub.L.89-97 (42 U.S.C. §1395 et seq.), with reasonable waiver provisions as determined by the commissioner or the federal Health Care Financing Administration, as appropriate;

    (2) the average length of stay in the unit shall not exceed 20 days;

    (3) the unit shall be certified to participate in the Medicare program as a skilled nursing facility;

    (4) the unit shall be comprised of not more than 15% of the hospital's licensed bed capacity or 24 beds, whichever is greater; and

    (5) the hospital's licensed acute care bed capacity shall be reduced, by the commissioner, by the number of beds used to establish a subacute care unit under the provisions of this section.

    b. ¹[Long-term care beds in a subacute care unit shall be subject to Medicaid occupancy level requirements established pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1985, c.303 (C.10:5-12.2), but, notwithstanding the provisions of section 2 of P.L.1985, c.303 (C.10:5-12.2) to the contrary, a hospital shall be required to maintain a Medicaid occupancy level in a subacute care unit equal to the monthly average Medicaid occupany level of the hospital's medical/surgical beds.] A subacute care unit shall not discriminate against a patient on the basis of a patient's ability to pay or source of payment for the care provided in the unit.¹ The long-term care beds in a subacute care unit shall not be included in long-term care bed inventories for certificate of need review purposes.

    4. a. The determination of whether a hospital subacute care unit or a skilled nursing or comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or other type of facility is the preferred non-acute care placement for a patient shall be based on clinical considerations and the preference of the patient and his family; except that, as a condition of licensure of a hospital subacute care unit, clinically stable patients who are being treated in the diagnostic categories listed in paragraph (1) of this subsection and who meet the criteria for inpatient rehabilitation hospital care listed in paragraph (2) of this subsection, except as may be recommended by the comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds pursuant to subsection b. of this section, shall not be placed in a hospital subacute care unit.

    (1) Diagnostic categories include patients with: strokes, congenital anomalies, major multiple trauma, polyarthritis including rheumatoid arthritis, neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis, motor neuron diseases, polyneuropathy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease, brain injury including traumatic or non-traumatic, spinal cord injury, amputations, joint replacements, fracture of the femur including hip fracture and burns.

    (2) Criteria for inpatient rehabilitation hospital care include patients who meet or require all of the following:

    (a) close medical supervision by a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation;

    (b) 24-hour rehabilitation nursing;

    (c) a relatively intense level of rehabilitation services;

    (d) a multi-disciplinary team approach to the delivery of the program;

    (e) a coordinated program of care;

    (f) significant practical improvement is expected in a reasonable period of time; and

    (g) realistic goals of self-care or independence in activities of daily living.

    b. An acute care hospital shall forward information on clinically stable patients to a licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or an acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds. The licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or the acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds shall then make a recommendation, signed by a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation, regarding placement within 24-hours of receipt of the information from the acute care hospital and which, together with the concurring or alternate recommedation from a case manager at the acute care hospital, shall be forwarded to the patient's attending physician.

    c. A patient in a skilled nursing home who is admitted to ¹and discharged from¹ an acute care hospital shall not be ¹[discharged] admitted¹ to the hospital's subacute care unit unless the skilled nursing home is unable to readmit the patient within 24 hours after notification by the acute care hospital that the patient is ready for readmission to the skilled nursing home. If a patient is admitted to the hospital's subacute care unit because that patient could not be readmitted to the skilled nursing home, the patient shall be discharged to the skilled nursing facility of origin as soon as the home agrees to accept the patient.

    d. In addition to the reports required in section 5 of P.L. .., c. ... (C. ........)(now pending before the Legislature as this bill), an acute care hospital with a subacute care unit shall file an annual report with the Department of Health demonstrating compliance with the provisions of this section. The report shall include information on the number of patients who were admitted to the hospital's subacute care unit when the admission was contrary to the recommendation of a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation, provided however, that the recommendation of the physician was for immediate placement of the patient, that is, within 24-hours, in a licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or an acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds. The report also shall include information on the number of patients admitted to the hospital's subacute care unit pursuant to subsection c. of this section because the patient could not be readmitted to a skilled nursing home.

    e. The commissioner shall develop a procedure to assess an acute care hospital with a hospital subacute care unit's compliance with the provisions of this section.

    f. Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall result in the suspension or revocation of a hospital subacute care license.

    ¹g. If an acute care hospital which has a subacute care unit plans to transfer a patient from the hospital to the subacute care unit, the hospital shall discharge the patient from the hospital and admit the patient to the subacute care unit.¹

    5. a. A subacute care unit shall be subject only to existing State long-term care facility licensure requirements and federal regulations governing Medicare participation.

    b. A health care facility that has or converts beds for subacute care shall file with the Department of Health quarterly reports showing each patient admitted to the subacute care unit during the quarter by diagnosis and the patient's length of stay in the unit.

    6. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall apply to subacute care units created after the effective date.

Permits establishment of subacute care units in health care facilities; exempts hospital-based units from certificate of need requirement under certain circumstances.