Ohio Code 3712.05 – Unlicensed hospice care programs
(A) No person or public agency, other than a person or public agency licensed pursuant to section 3712.04 of the Revised Code, shall hold itself out as providing a hospice care program, or provide a hospice care program, or use the term “hospice” or any term containing “hospice” to describe or refer to a health program, facility, or agency.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3712.05
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Hospice care program: means a coordinated program of home, outpatient, and inpatient care and services that is operated by a person or public agency and that provides the following care and services to hospice patients, including services as indicated below to hospice patients' families, through a medically directed interdisciplinary team, under interdisciplinary plans of care established pursuant to section 3712. See Ohio Code 3712.01
- Interdisciplinary team: means a working unit composed of professional and lay persons that includes at least a physician, a registered nurse, a social worker, a member of the clergy or a counselor, and a volunteer. See Ohio Code 3712.01
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
A hospital, home providing nursing care, or home health agency that provides services under contract with a person or public agency providing a hospice care program licensed under section 3712.04 of the Revised Code or a terminal care facility for the homeless that has entered into an agreement under section 3712.07 of the Revised Code shall not be considered as providing a hospice care program in violation of this division.
This division does not apply to the activities of regional, state, or national nonprofit organizations of which providers of hospice care programs, individuals interested in hospice care programs, or both, are members and that do not provide or represent that they provide hospice care programs.
As used in this division, “person” does not include a member of an interdisciplinary team, as defined in section 3712.01 of the Revised Code, or any individual who is employed by a person or public agency licensed under section 3712.04 of the Revised Code.
(B) The department of health shall petition the court of common pleas of any county in which a person or public agency, without a license granted under section 3712.04 of the Revised Code, is holding itself out as providing a hospice care program, is providing a hospice care program, or is representing a health program, facility, or agency as a hospice care program, for an order enjoining that person or public agency from conducting those activities without a license. The court has jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief upon a showing that the respondent named in the petition is conducting those activities without a license.
Any person or public agency may request the department to petition the court for injunctive relief under this division, and the department shall do so if it determines that the person or public agency named in the request is violating division (A) of this section.