(a)  No person acting severally or jointly with any other person shall establish, conduct, or maintain a healthcare facility in this state without a license under this chapter; provided, however, that any person, firm, corporation, or other entity that provides volunteer, registered and licensed practical nurses to the public shall not be required to have a license as a healthcare facility.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-4

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Freestanding emergency-care facility: means an establishment, place, or facility that may be a public or private organization, structurally distinct and separate from a hospital; staffed, equipped, and operated to provide prompt, emergency medical care. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2
  • Healthcare facility: means any institutional health-service provider, facility, or institution, place, building, agency, or portion thereof, whether a partnership or corporation, whether public or private, whether organized for profit or not, used, operated, or engaged in providing healthcare services, including, but not limited to: hospitals; nursing facilities; home nursing-care provider (which shall include skilled nursing services and may also include activities allowed as a home-care provider or as a nursing service agency); home-care provider (which may include services such as personal care or homemaker services); rehabilitation centers; kidney disease treatment centers; health maintenance organizations; freestanding emergency-care facilities as defined in this section, and facilities providing surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization (surgi-centers); hospice care, and physician ambulatory-surgery centers and podiatry ambulatory-surgery centers providing surgical treatment. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2
  • Hospital: means a person or governmental entity licensed in accordance with this chapter to establish, maintain, and operate a hospital. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2
  • Person: means any individual, trust or estate, partnership, corporation (including associations, joint stock companies, and insurance companies), state, or political subdivision or instrumentality of a state. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2

(b)  Each location at which a healthcare facility provides services shall be licensed; provided, however, that a hospital or organized ambulatory-care facility shall be permitted to provide, solely on an ambulatory basis, limited physician services, other limited, professional healthcare services, and/or other limited, professional mental-healthcare services in conjunction with services provided by and at community health centers, community mental-health centers, organized ambulatory-care facilities or other licensed healthcare facilities, physicians’ offices, and facilities operated by the department of corrections without establishing such locations as additional licensed premises of the hospital or organized ambulatory-care facility; provided, that a healthcare facility licensed as an organized ambulatory-care facility in the state, may provide services at other locations operated by that licensed organized ambulatory-care facility, without the requirement of a separate, organized ambulatory-care facility license for such other locations. For purposes of this section, an organized ambulatory-care facility or other licensed healthcare facility shall not include a freestanding emergency-care facility. The department is further authorized to adopt rules and regulations to accomplish the purpose of this section, including, but not limited to, defining “limited physician services, other limited, professional healthcare services, and/or other limited, professional mental-healthcare services.”

(c)  The reimbursement rates for the services rendered in the settings listed in subsection (b) shall be subject to negotiations between the hospitals, organized, ambulatory-care facilities, and the payors, respectively, as defined in § 23-17.12-2.

History of Section.
P.L. 1932, ch. 1956, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 259, § 1; P.L. 1948, ch. 2112, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 259, § 4; P.L. 1949, ch. 2387, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-16-4; P.L. 1972, ch. 72, § 1; P.L. 1978, ch. 269, § 5; P.L. 1979, ch. 39, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-17-4; P.L. 2001, ch. 334, § 1; P.L. 2012, ch. 252, § 1; P.L. 2012, ch. 266, § 1; P.L. 2014, ch. 498, § 1; P.L. 2014, ch. 531, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 417, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 418, § 1.